TURKEY: Explosion in Kurdish rebel stronghold kills at least eight
A Ramadan cease-fire in the long-brewing war between Turkey and Kurdish rebels may have come to an end Thursday morning.
Authorities say at least eight people were killed and three injured in southeastern Turkey when an explosion from a bomb or land mine struck a civilian minibus, according to news reports.
The semiofficial Anatolia News Agency cited a local official as saying the explosion took place near the city of Hakkari, among the centers of a 26-year Kurdish insurgency against the Turkish government.
The privately owned CNN-Turk channel said the explosion was caused by a land mine.
Political difficulties have recently dashed hopes for peace between the Ankara government and the militant Kurdistan Workers Party, known by the Turkish acronym PKK.
Kurds in the country's southeast largely heeded a call to boycott last weekend's nationwide referendum on changes to the constitution, underscoring the rift between the country's Turks and its largest ethnic minority.
-- Borzou Daragahi in Beirut
Photo: In this picture taken Aug 13, 2010, members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, are seen in the Qandil mountain range of Iraq. Credit: AP Photo/Yahya Ahmed
It seems to be pretty much the same issue that Iraq is to be facing quite soon. The issue of co-existence of Arabs and Kurds (the latter inhabit the territory that is especially reach in oil) remains the most topical one (http://www.win.ru/en/ideas/5357.phtml).
Posted by: Kirill | September 20, 2010 at 01:52 AM
It is so crazy to blame Turkish Army for this attack. This is obviously PKK's(a Kurdish Terrorist Organization) method. They plant land mines to the roads and wait for troops to pass as Iraqi terrorists do.
Probably they did not expect these poor Kurdish villagers to pass at that time and killed lots of people.
Posted by: Azhar | September 18, 2010 at 12:32 AM
Insincere people do support one side or another until wind blows on a different direction, Kurds have sincere needs and few foreign mercenaries aren't helping their cause!
Posted by: Joe | September 17, 2010 at 01:27 PM
Where is the aid ship for the Kurds?
Posted by: atrayu | September 17, 2010 at 04:35 AM
I 'am from Hakkari, we know that this is a Turkish army' s terror attact, because of in the last referandum this viliage peoples did not vote and they supported the PKK. The Turkish army did attack to civilians like this type of before. then the whole world Pkk did these attacks, they said.
It is a TURKISH TERRORİST ATTACT TO KURDISH CIVILIANS.
Posted by: Taner | September 16, 2010 at 11:01 AM
PKK has denied responsibility:
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/16/turkey.minibus.landmine/
This is likely the work of the "deep state" to undermine the peace process.
Posted by: Sheridan | September 16, 2010 at 09:51 AM
Sounds like a "massacre" to me. Boycott. Divest. And blame more Jews!
Posted by: ABG | September 16, 2010 at 05:54 AM
this is an act of Turkish army to demonise PKK in the region where most of the people boycotted the last week's referandum.
Posted by: KurdishMan | September 16, 2010 at 04:38 AM