Mainstream news on kurdish struggle

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: Mainstream news on kurdish struggle
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl

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           id VT5723; Wed, 24 May 1995 18:57:03 -0800


Kurdish rebels raid village

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Kurdish rebels raided a village in southeastern Turkey
near the Syrian border Monday, killing three people, the Anatolia news agency
said.

Eight Kurdish rebels attacked Karafakililar village in the Mediterranean
coastal Hatay province and fired at homes, the official Turkish news agency
said. Two other villagers were seriously wounded, it said.

Turkey has long accused Syria of providing refuge to Kurdish rebels. The
leader of the rebels, Abdullah Ocalan, lives in the Syrian city of Laskiye,
according to the Turkish intelligence sources.

Kurdish rebels have been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since
1984. More than 15,000 people, including civilians, soldiers and rebels, have
died.

Turkish troops boost forces against rebels Kurds

TUNCELI, Turkey (Reuter) - Turkish military sources said Monday the number of
troops in eastern Tunceli province would be boosted to 45,000 as part of the
army's bid to finish off rebel Kurdish guerrillas.

The Turkish foreign ministry meanwhile said Ankara would pay cash compensation
to civilians whose property was damaged during Turkey's six-week incursion into
northern Iraq against the rebels which ended three weeks ago.

A 5,000-strong commando brigade was expected to arrive in the mountainious
Tunceli province Tuesday, joining 40,000 troops backed by helicopters and
tanks, the sources said.

Both military and Kurdish rebel sources say about 2,000 guerrillas from the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is fighting an 11-year battle for control
of Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, operate in Tunceli.

The Turkish army started an intensive operation against the PKK in Tunceli last
September, but despite frequent promises the military has yet to wipe out the
group or find regional commander Semdin Sakik.

Turkish troops killed 12 PKK rebels in two separate clashes in southeast Turkey
Monday, state-run television said. They killed nine rebels in the Cudi
mountains near the Iraqi border and three others around Lice town in Diyarbakir
province, it added.

The foreign ministry said in a statement "damages of very limited amount" had
occurred during the incursion into Kurdish-held northern Iraq and the
government had decided "out of humanitarian considerations" to make cash
payments to people who lost property or their representatives.

The payments would be made Wednesday at the Habur crossing on the Iraq-Turkey
border, it said. It did not say how much would be paid or how the damages would
be assessed.

More than 16,000 people have died since the PKK -- which claims to have some
15,000 guerrillas throughout eastern and southeast Turkey -- took up arms in
1984.

	Tabe