Casualties of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict

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Ayşe Konakçı Primary School in Tavas, Denizli: A notable form of remembrance for the memory of the teachers killed by the PKK has been to give the names of each to an educational etablishment
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Ayşe Konakçı Primary School in Tavas, Denizli: A notable form of remembrance for the memory of the teachers killed by the PKK has been to give the names of each to an educational etablishment
Kurds on March 30, 2006 carry the coffin one of the people who died during clashes (Turkey)
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Kurds on March 30, 2006 carry the coffin one of the people who died during clashes (Turkey)

In the Turkish-Kurdish conflict more than 30.000 people have been killed since 1984 [1], while the PKK [2], citing the article by the former French Ambassador to Turkey Eric Rouleau in the November/December 2000 edition of 'Foreign Affairs', reports that more than 18,500 civilians have been killed by Turkish military and paramilitary organisations. In his article, Rouleau had claimed holding the number from the Turkish Ministry of Justice.[3]

Human Rights Watch has stated that:

  • "Consequently, all economic, political, military, social and cultural organizations, institutions, formations -- and those who serve in them -- have become targets. The entire country has become a battlefield."
  • "The PKK also promised to "liquidate" or "eliminate" political parties, "imperialist" cultural and educational institutions, legislative and representative bodies, and "all local collaborators and agents working for the Republic of Turkey in Kurdistan." [4]

It also notes that "Turkish government forces have, in the course of the conflict with the PKK, also committed serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including torture, extrajudicial killings, and indiscriminate fire" [4], and remarks that, "Many who died were unarmed civilians, caught in the middle between the PKK and security forces, targeted for attacks by both sides." [5]

According to the Committee for a Workers' International, during that conflict (and still), the Turkish army tortured, killed and “disappeared” civilians, and burned hundreds of thousands of peasants out of their homes and blamed to PKK or other organizations. [6] According to Amnesty International, PKK killed and allegedly tortured Kurdish peasants and even its own members in the 1980's. A number of Kurds have been abducted and killed because they were suspected of being "collaborators" or "informers" and and it was a common practice for the PKK to kill their families in whole. [7] Amnesty International goes on to point out that, "'Disappearances' and extrajudicial executions have emerged as new and disturbing patterns of human rights violations ..." by the Turkish state.[8] It also reports that while the Turkish state reports massacres as being committed by the PKK, they have been known to blame their own massacres on the PKK, including massacres of State-armed village guard paramilitaries [9].

Below is a non-exhaustive list of attacks during the conflict, particularly those with civilians as targets. The list excludes attempted or planned attacks thwarted by the security forces.

Contents

[edit] Killings

[edit] 2006

  • September 12, 2006: In Diyarbakir, eleven civilians were killed (6 of them children) and 16 wounded by a bomb placed next to an elementary school. TIT (Turkish Revenge Brigade) claimed responsibility.[10]
  • August 30, 2006: In Mersin a bomb was planted in a rubbish container on Inonu street, one person was injured.[11] The bombing is believed to be linked to the recent attacks by the TAK, however they have not claimed responsibility.[12] [13]
  • August 28, 2006: Less than 24 hours after separate bombs in Marmaris wounded 21 people, including 10 Britons and 11 Turks [14], a bomb blast killed three people (one of them born in Şırnak), wounding 87 (among them 14 tourists; 4 Jordanians, 3 Russians, 3 Germans, 2 Dutch, 1 Israeli and 1 Iranian)[5] in the coastal city Antalya. A bomb explosion in the evening in front of the Governor's offices outside in Istanbul's Bağcılar quarter caused 6 people to be injured in. [6] The attack was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (abbreviated TAK) a group which split off from the PKK. The PKK condemned the bombings. [7].
  • August 06, 2006: In Gümüşhane, a noncomissioned officer and two soldiers were killed, five wounded in a PKK ambush to a military vehicle. [15]
  • July 27, 2006: In Bingöl, one Turkish military officer was killed by PKK anti-personal mine. One Turkish military officer and one soldier was wounded. [16]
  • July 21, 2006: In Hakkari Şemdinli, one Turkish soldier was killed by PKK members using long-range rifle, in a helicopter during his last day of military service. [17]
  • July 17, 2006: In Batman, two Turkish police officers were killed in a PKK ambush. [18]
  • July 15, 2006: In Siirt, seven Turkish soldiers and one village guard were killed by PKK members. [19]
  • July 13, 2006: In Bitlis, five Turkish soldiers were killed and four others wounded by PKK members using a remote detonated road mine. [20]
  • July 06, 2006: In Diyarbakir, one civilian driver was killed and three soldiers were wounded when PKK members detonated a bomb implanted in a car carrying bread to a military precinct. [21]
  • June 30, 2006: In Tunceli, one Turkish soldier was killed by PKK members using a long-range Dragunov Sniper Rifle (Kanas). [22]
  • June 30, 2006: In Bingöl, one officer and one soldier from Turkish Gendarmerie died when a PKK-planted road mine was detonated by remote control. Six other Turkish soldiers were injured. [23]
  • June 28, 2006: One Turkish soldier died in clashes with PKK in Hakkari. The PKK members then escaped to Iraq after the clash. [24]
  • June 23, 2006: Four Turkish soldiers were killed and three others were wounded during operations against PKK-affiliated People's Defense Forces (HPG) guerrillas in Özalp district of Van Province. [25]
  • June 11, 2006: In Tunceli, PKK attacked a Turkish military convoy using long-range rifles and RPGs. Two Turkish soldiers died in the attack. Five soldiers and two civilians were also injured. [26]
  • June 6, 2006: Two Turkish soldiers were killed by PKK in Hakkari. Two others were injured. [27]
  • June 4, 2006: 2 Kurd Rebels Killed in Turkish Clashes [28]
  • April 5, 2006: An attack on a district office of the Justice and Development Party in Istanbul results in two people injured. It is believed the TAK carried out the attack. [29]
  • April 2, 2006: Three civilian women died because of a bus that went out of control, which was burned and rampaged by PKK sympathisers during an illegal street meeting, in Esenler, İstanbul. [30]
  • March 31, 2006: One person was killed and thirteen injured when the TAK detonated a bomb near a bus station in the Kocamustafapasa district of Istanbul.[29]

[edit] 2005

  • November 15, 2005: Turkish security forces killed three Kurdish civilians in a clash in the city of Yüksekova. [31]
  • September 6, 2005: Further violence between police and demonstrators left at least one Kurd dead in the south-eastern province of Siirt. The Economist reported that a nationalist mob killed a Kurdish worker the same day in a in Düzce. [32]
  • September 4, 2005: Clashes erupted after demonstrators waving PKK banners and posters of the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, shouted slogans as they drove through the town of Bozüyük. Turkish nationalists stopped their convoy, smashed bus windows with stones, set their tyres ablaze and attacked the Kurds.
Kuşadası minibus bomb attack on 16 July 2005 made five victims, including Tara Whelan
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Kuşadası minibus bomb attack on 16 July 2005 made five victims, including Tara Whelan
  • July 16, 2005: Five people were killed, including the 23-year old British woman Helen Bennett and the 17-year old Irish schoolgirl Tara Whelan by a bomb left by a man in a minibus in Kuşadası. [8] Dolores McNamara, the record-breaking winner of EuroMillions, was only a few yards away from the minibus and escaped with minor wounds. The bomber has been arrested in İstanbul on 8 April 2006 and is currently being tried in İzmir. He reported that he had he had mixed with militant circles after having started to live in Germany as an asylum-seeker and had been trained in camps based in Germany and the Netherlands. [33]
  • July 10, 2005: Explosion of a bomb in Çeşme wounded 22 people, mostly tourists.
  • May 1, 2005: A bomb left in a Kuşadası public square killed one policeman while he was trying to defuse it.
  • April 16, 2005: Four members of the Turkish security forces and 21 Kurdish rebels were killed in a clash during a security operation in the southeast of the country. [34]

[edit] 2004

  • November 21, 2004: Turkish security forces shot dead Ahmet Kaymaz, a villager displaced from Köprülü village in Mardin Province, and his twelve-year-old son Uğur Kaymaz in the nearby town of Kızıltepe. Neighbors told the Human Rights Association of Turkey (HRA) that Kaymaz and his son had been preparing their commercial vehicle for a forthcoming journey and were unarmed at the time. Afterwards, the provincial governor stated that “two terrorists have been captured dead following a clash.”

[edit] 2001

  • March 21, 2001: "Three people have died in the southern Turkish city of Mersin, in clashes between thousands of Kurdish youths and Turkish riot police over a government ban preventing Kurds from celebrating their new year." [35]
  • June 23, 2001: One guerilla and four Turkish soldiers were killed, three Turkish soliders injured in a clash between the HPG and Turkish security forces in the Ozalp District of Van. [9]
  • April 16, 2005: 4 Turkish Soldiers, 21 Kurds Killed in Clashes [36]

[edit] 1997

  • December 13, 1997: In an attack against a group of Assyrian travellers in Northern Iraq, six Assyrians from Mangesh were killed by suspected PKK rebels. According to the Political Bureau of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa) in Arbil, Northern Iraq, on 13 December, a group of the Kurdistan Workers Party members ambushed a group of Assyrians traveling from Mangesh to Dohuk. The attackers killed six Assyrian men and wounded a woman. [37]
  • October 22, 1997: A group of PKK militants carried out an attack against civilian settlements in the Mezouri Jhori region of Northern Iraq, close to Turkish borders. The properties were set ablaze with its occupants. A total of fourteen Kurdish civilians were killed in Korka, Chema, Dizo and Selki villages.[38]

[edit] 1995

[edit] 1994

[edit] 1993

[edit] 1992

[edit] Bombings

  • 25 January 1992: Bombs planted in Galeria and The Grand Bazaar by PKK militants killed one civilian and injured 18. [40]
  • 9 March 2006: A suicide bomber, reportedly a Syrian national, mistook a municipality van for a police car and blew himself after having jumped into the vehicle, killing one municipality staff member and a passer-by in Van. [41]
  • 16 April 2006: A bomb planted in Bakırköy district of İstanbul by PKK militants injured 31 civilians.[42]
  • 3 May 2006: 11 children, 12 adult civilians and 5 soldiers were injured as a result of a PKK attack on a schoolbus carrying siblings of the military personel by using a remote controlled bomb in Hakkari. [43]

[edit] Teachers

PKK has targeted primary school teachers working in the village schools. PKK's efforts against these teachers started in the early nineties and continued on a recurrent basis. After armed PKK members abducted and killed 19 teachers in the autumn of 1994, Amnesty International's 1995 report on Turkey mentioned that "It appears that the Kurdish Workers' Party, PKK, is resuming its repugnant policy of murdering teachers in southeast Turkey" [10]. The number of teachers killed by PKK is at variance but according to Turkish government sources 124 teachers were killed by members of the PKK. [7]

Year Total Mardin Batman Erzurum Tunceli Diyarbakir Bitlis Bingol Sanliurfa Siirt Mus Van Elaziğ Şırnak Ağrı Tokat
1988 19 4 3 12
1989 4
1990 10 4
1991 4 2 2
1992 24
1993 51 1 12 24 5 4 2 1 1 1
1994 31 4 4 4 10 5 1 1 1 1
1995 7 2 1 2 1 1
1996 8
Total 158 Breakdown table of teachers killed with respected to provinces.

[44] [45] [7]

[edit] Children

  • March 29, 2006: Abdullah Duran, a 9 year old boy, was shot dead by security forces during the clashes in Diyarbakir.[46] [47]
  • March 30, 2006: According to the EU-Turkey Civic Commission Submission on Recent Violence, Enez Atak, a 6 year old boy, was injured by a plastic bullet and later died in hospital, Diyarbakir.[46]
  • March 30, 2006: According to the EU-Turkey Civic Commission Submission on Recent Violence, Fatih Tekin, a 3 year old boy, was shot and killed by Turkish Security forces during a police raid on a civilian house in Batman during a series of violent clashes in the Kurdish regions of Turkey.[46]

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] Europe’s Terror Problem: PKK Fronts Inside the EU by Soner Cagaptay and Fikret Cem S.
  2. ^ [2] pkk-kongra-gel
  3. ^ U.S. Policy In The Mediterranean: Managing The Greece, Turkey, Cyprus Triangle. The House of Representatives.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Human Rights Watch:Letter to Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema
  5. ^ Human Rights Watch - Turkey: Human Rights Developments
  6. ^ Committee for a Workers' International
  7. ^ a b c Amnesty International: Turkey campaign (1997)(Chapter 3)
  8. ^ Amnesty International: Turkey campaign (1997)(Chapter 2)
  9. ^ Amnesty International: Turkey campaign (1996)
  10. ^ "1 Death in Diyarbakir Blast", Turkish Newspaper AKSAM, 09-13-06.
  11. ^ "1 Injured in Mersin Blast", Zaman Online, 08-30-06.
  12. ^ "Blast in Turkish port wounds one-officials", Reuters, 08-30-06.
  13. ^ "One injured in Turkey explosion", BBC, 08-30-06.
  14. ^ "Fresh blast in Turkey kills 3", Reuters, 08-28-06.
  15. ^ "Askeri araca saldırı: 3 şehit (non-english)", NTV on MSNBC, 08-07-06.
  16. ^ "Bingöl'de mayın tuzağı: 1 şehit (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 07-27-06.
  17. ^ "Tezkeresini aldı şehit oldu (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 07-21-06.
  18. ^ "Turkey Signals It's Prepared to Enter Iraq", ABC News International, 07-18-06.
  19. ^ "Siirt Eruh'ta PKK saldırısı: 8 şehit (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 07-16-06.
  20. ^ "Yine PKK mayını 5 şehit, 4 yaralı (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 07-14-06.
  21. ^ "Diyarbakır'da patlama: 1 ölü (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 07-06-06.
  22. ^ "Tunceli'de 1 şehit (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 06-30-06.
  23. ^ "PKK karakol bastı: 1 astsubay ve 1 er şehit (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 06-30-06.
  24. ^ "Çukurca'da çatışma: 1 er şehit (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 06-28-06.
  25. ^ Iran Report Vol. 9, No. 24, 7 July 2006. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
  26. ^ "Tunceli'de hain pusu: 2 şehit (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 06-11-06.
  27. ^ "Hakkari'de 2 şehit (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 06-06-06.
  28. ^ "2 Kurd Rebels Killed in Turkish Clashes", Arab News, 06-04-06.
  29. ^ a b "Timeline:Bomb blasts in Turkey", BBC, 08-29-06.
  30. ^ "Esenler'de facia", MÝLLÝYET ÝNTERNET - GÜNCEL, Unknown.
  31. ^ Human Rights Watch - Turkey: Police Killings Follow Attack on Bookstore
  32. ^ The Economist - "Coexistence between Turks and Kurds is suddenly fraying" - Ankara, 8 September 2005
  33. ^ Kenthaber - The Association of Local Newspapers of Turkey
  34. ^ "Al-Jazeerah Information Center 4 Turkish Soldiers, 21 Kurds Killed in Clashes"
  35. ^ [BBC News, March 21, 2002]
  36. ^ "4 Turkish Soldiers, 21 Kurds Killed in Clashes", Arab News via AlJazeerah.info, 05-16-05.
  37. ^ [3]
  38. ^ KDP
  39. ^ "PKK Massarcres Five", Hurriyet Newspaper via Hellenic Resources Institute, 09-25-05.
  40. ^ Almanak Türkiye on Geocities.com. Unknown.
  41. ^ "Van'da bomba: Üç kişi öldü", Radikal Newspaper, 03-10-06.
  42. ^ "BBC Istanbul blast leaves 31 injured", BBC, 04-16-06.
  43. ^ "Çocuklara bile bomba (non-english)", Hürriyet Newspaper, 05-04-06.
  44. ^ http://www.meb.gov.tr
  45. ^ http://pdm.medicine.wisc.edu/18-2pdfs/new152RodopluTurkey.pdf
  46. ^ a b c EU-Turkey Civic Commission Submission on Recent Violence on khrp.org
  47. ^ [4]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

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