TURKEY: Thousands gather for the funeral of the soldiers killed by PKK members in Istanbul

Record ID: 751469

  • Title: TURKEY: Thousands gather for the funeral of the soldiers killed by PKK members in Istanbul
  • Date: 6th October 2008
  • Summary: PEOPLE WAVING FLAGS CHANTING "Martyrs don't die, land will not be separated" FUNERAL PRAYER COFFINS BEING CARRIED BY SOLDIERS CROWD CHANTING VARIOUS OF FUNERAL SERVICE WOMEN CRYING
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAF4EBKCRVVNFIZ8ZFUJV90XXMZ
  • Story Text: Thousands of people gathered for the funeral of the killed soldiers by PKK members on Sunday (October 5) in various cities. Crowd carrying Turkish flags chanted against the PKK, calling the army for operation against group.
    An ambush by Kurdish rebels that killed at least 15 Turkish soldiers has piled domestic pressure on Turkey to launch a large-scale offensive in northern Iraq that would hurt its ties with Washington and the European Union.
    In the worst single attack on the military in a year, rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Friday raided a military outpost in a region in southeast Turkey bordering Iraq. Twenty soldiers were wounded and two more are still missing.
    Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the powerful military have vowed to step up operations to crush the PKK, which was been weakened by Turkish warplane strikes in their bases in northern Iraq.
    NATO-member Turkey has attacked PKK bases in northern Iraq several times in the past 12 months but has confined itself to shelling and air strikes since the brief land offensive in February, which Ankara cut short under U.S. pressure.
    Washington and the EU, which Ankara hopes to join, are concerned that prolonged Turkish military operations inside Iraq could further destabilise Iraq and the wider region.
    Tapping into a national mood of indignation and nationalism sparked by the attack, Vatan daily said in a front-page headline: "Enough is enough!", above mug shots of the dead soldiers, most of them beardless.
    "Finish the damn war!," proclaimed Taraf newspaper, which is normally critical of the armed forces. Turkish chief of staff who organised a media briefing released pictures of the area where PKK members attacked the army compound Parliament next week is scheduled to approve a new mandate to launch military operations against the PKK in Iraq as needed.
    The current mandate expires on Oct. 17.
    Several thousand PKK fighters are still believed to be based in northern Iraq, from where they stage attacks on mainly military targets in southeast Turkey. Luring them down from the mountains is likely to require more than sporadic air raids.
    Turkey blames the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the EU, for the deaths of more than 40,000 people since it launched its campaign for an ethnic Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. Turkey says Iraq is not doing enough to crush the PKK.
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