| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Kurds Return to Turkey's Parliament |
| 2007-08-04 |
| ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - To some, they are terrorist sympathizers. To others, they are champions of Turkey's ethnic Kurd minority. On Saturday, 21 lawmakers backed by a political party accused of links to the Kurdish rebel group PKK take the oath of office in Turkey's new Parliament, marking the first time the group is represented in the legislature since its ouster in 1994 over alleged ties to the militants. For many Kurds, the revival of the Democratic Society Party raises hopes for a new era in their struggle for more rights. But many Turks are afraid of a party suspected of being under the influence of an organization labeled terrorist by the United States and the European Union and which has fought to carve out a separate Kurdish state. The Turkish military has been fighting the PKK - formally known as the Kurdistan Workers' Party - for decades in a conflict that has killed as many as 40,000 people, most in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. Kurds make up about 20 percent of Turkey's more than 70 million people. The 550-member Parliament will be dominated by the Islamic-oriented ruling party of Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan, who led supporters to a resounding triumph in the July 22 elections. But the Kurds will now have a platform to push for more control over their affairs. Their presence in Ankara could antagonize other lawmakers who view Kurdish separatism as a threat to national sovereignty. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 what a mess. |
| Posted by: AT 2007-08-04 03:41 |