- Title: TURKEY/ IRAQ: REFUGEES FLEE NORTHERN IRAQ
- Date: 7th September 1996
- Summary: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION; IRAQ-TURKEY BORDER (SEPTEMBER 7, 1996) (RTV (A) -- NO ACCESS TURKEY) 1. LV CAMP OF TURKMEN NOMADIC REFUGEES WHO HAVE FLED NORTH IRAQ 0.04 2. LV/SV WOMEN AND CHILD IN CAMP/ WOMEN WASHING AND COOKING (4 SHOTS) 0.26 3. SV REFUGEE SEVSEN AVNI SPEAKING ABOUT HER HUSBAND, WHO WAS RECENTLY KILLE
- Embargoed: 22nd September 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: UNDISCLOSED LOCATION; TURKEY-IRAQ BORDER
- City:
- Country: EUROPE Turkey ASIA Iraq MIDDLE EAST
- Reuters ID: LVAEACHB9T0TVBMIB3H97ACLA4KW
- Story Text: INTRO: Refugees fleeing northern Iraq to escape an Iraqi offensive say Saddam Hussein's soldiers have killed two of their people and arrested dozens more.
Thousands of Turkomen, a semi-nomadic tribe, live among Kurds in northern Iraq under the U.S.-protected "no-fly" zone.
Now some of them are fleeing further north in a bid to escape the Iraqi forces and the factional fighting between rival Kurdish groups.
One group of Turkomen, living in a refugee camp along the Turkey-Iraq border, says that their people are being specifically targeted by the Iraqi soldiers.
One refugee, Sevsen Avni, said her husband was killed in the last few days in northern Iraq by advancing Iraqis.
A spokesman for the Turkomen Association, Enise Abbas,said his people no longer want to live in their traditional homelands.
"We either accept Arabic nationalism and oppression or we die," he said.
Many of the Turkomen people look to Turkey for some relief from their plight. They say they want Turkish forces, already on the nearby border, set up a buffer-zone inside the Iraq to help protect them.
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