MIDEAST-CRISIS/KURDISH PROTEST Kurdish protesters in northern Iraq denounce Turkey’s air strikes against PKK

Record ID: 146074

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/KURDISH PROTEST Kurdish protesters in northern Iraq denounce Turkey’s air strikes against PKK
  • Date: 25th July 2015
  • Summary: SULAIMANIYA, IRAQ (JULY 25, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS OF KURDISTAN WORKERS PARTY (PKK) GATHERED IN STREET, WAVING KURDISTAN FLAGS PROTESTERS CARRYING PKK FLAG PICTURE OF THEIR FOUNDER ABDULLAH OCALAN VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHANTING AND WAVING PKK FLAGS PROTESTER WITH HIS FACE COVERED BY PKK FLAG PROTESTERS STANDING WITH BANNERS DENOUNCING TURKISH ATTACK ON KURDISH REGION PROTESTERS DEMONSTRATING IN STREET PKK FLAG WITH PICTURE OF OCALAN BEING WAVED (SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) DEMONSTRATOR, SAYING: "We condemn the terrorist Turkish government because it has betrayed the Kurds for years. We don't accept that action and we want our rights of recognizing the Kurdish identity, our language and our culture in Turkey, we are, as Kurds of Turkey, denouncing the Turkish bloody bombardment." PKK FLAG PROTESTERS GATHERED IN STREET
  • Embargoed: 9th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1R13UKSNA5BO9M2AILK3K1EMK
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: AUDIO QUALITY AS INCOMING
    Dozens of protesters gathered in the city of Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq on Saturday (July 25) to protest Turkey's air strikes on the camps of the Kurdish Workers Party PKK in Iraq.
    Turkish fighter jets and ground forces hit Islamic State militants in Syria and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in Iraq, in a campaign Ankara said would help create a "safe zone" across swathes of northern Syria.
    The strikes followed Turkey's first-ever air attacks on Islamic State in Syria a day earlier and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference the heightened security operations will go on.
    Protesters held flags of the PKK and its leader Abullah Ocalan and chanted statements denouncing the air strikes.
    "We condemn the terrorist Turkish government because it has betrayed the Kurds for years. We don't accept that action and we want our rights of recognizing the Kurdish identity, our language and our culture in Turkey, we are, as Kurds of Turkey, denouncing the Turkish bloody bombardment," said one protester.
    Turkey has dramatically cranked up its role in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, which has seized much of Syria's north and east, since a suspected IS suicide bomber killed 32 people this week in a town close to the Syrian border.
    It has also pledged to target Kurdish militants, raising concern about the future of the shaky Kurdish peace process. Critics including opposition politicians accuse President Tayyip Erdogan of trying to use the campaign against Islamic State as an excuse to crack down on Kurds.
    Turkey was long a reluctant member of the coalition against Islamic State, a stance that annoyed NATO ally Washington, and this weekend's move into the front line appears to be a response to the suicide bombing in the border town of Suruc.
    Many of those killed in the Suruc attack were Kurds and it sparked violence in the largely Kurdish southeast by militants who say Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party have covertly supported Islamic State against Syrian Kurds.
    Ankara denies the accusation.
    On Friday, as its planes bombed Islamic State in Syria for the first time, police rounded up hundreds of suspected Islamist and Kurdish militants in cities and towns across Turkey, with nearly 600 people having been detained as of Saturday.
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