Two Kurdish Guerillas Killed in Turkey
Sister of Yezidi (pictured in poster) killed fighting for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in South East Turkey, Alagyaz, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 1998
Reuters reports that two members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed by Turkish soldiers in South East Turkey. It is the second incident in two days.
The clash occurred on Wednesday when rebels ignored a call to give up their weapons and opened fire on a military patrol in a remote part of Sirnak province near the border with Iraq, the governor said in a statement.
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Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast has seen an upsurge in violence in recent months despite a decision by the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to extend a unilateral ceasefire declared last month until Oct. 3.
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Some 30,000 people have been killed since the PKK began its armed struggle for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey in 1984.
Incidently, yesterday I interviewed Robert Langer, an academic from the University of Heidelberg, who was visiting Armenia to conduct further research on Armenia’s Yezidi minority. Kurdish nationalism in the community was the main focus of our conversation, and how it had impacted on Yezidi ritual and tradition.
The interview is an addition to work already undertaken on the division within the Yezidi community regarding their ethnic origin. Interestingly, compared to 1998 when I first started to examine Armenia’s largest minority, the division seems to be larger than it was, with more Yezidi distancing themselves from the Kurds. More on that later.
