Turkish jets destroy bridge, damage properties in Arbil

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Turkish airplanes have pounded some regions in Arbil, where they destroyed a bridge and caused some material damage, commander of the 43th unit of the Peshmerga forces said on Friday. “Turkish jets bombarded a number of villages in Siedkan district in Arbil, destroying a bridge linking Armoush with Khouwakerk regions and damaging some citizens’ properties,” General Halkord Khedr told IraqiNews.com news agency. Turkish forces have been shelling some border areas of Iraq under the pretext of attacking outposts of the PKK. The PKK is considered a “terrorist” organization by both Ankara and the United States. Over 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the Turkish Kurds of the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan). A large Turkish Kurdish community openly sympathize with the PKK rebels. The PKK, or Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan in Kurdish, demanded Turkey’s recognition of the Kurds’ identity in its constitution and of their language as a native language along with Turkish in the country’s Kurdish areas. The party also demanded an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and constitution against Kurds, granting them full political freedoms. Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations. SH (S) 2