ANKARA USES QUAKE AS SMOKESCREEN TO CONTINUE OPERATIONS AGAINST KURDS -EXPERT
PanARMENIAN.Net
October 25, 2011 – 14:27 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – With the attention of international community
focused on the devastating earthquake in Van, Turkish authorities
are intensifying struggle against PKK, expanding operations in the
territory of Iraq, according to the head of European Integration NGO.
As Karen Bekaryan told a news conference in Yerevan, Ankara operations
against PKK remind the annihilation policy of Ottoman Turks towards
Armenians. “In the early 20th century, Turkish authorities carried
out their plan of ethnical cleansing on the backdrop of international
issues and a war. Clearly, in modern days, Turkish government applies
the same principle to Kurds,” the experts said.
At least 217 were killed and more than 1,000 people injured when a
powerful earthquake struck Turkey, collapsing dozens of buildings and
pulling down phone and power lines in the southeast of the country,
officials and witnesses said. More than 1,000 people are feared killed
in the earthquake. Another magnitude 6.1 earthquake, which was the
second to rock the country was registered about 20 km (12 miles)
from the city of Van at the depth of some 10 km (6.2 miles).
Turkish tanks and armored vehicles crossed into northern Iraq headed
in the direction of a Kurdish militant camp, Turkish security sources
said Monday, Oct 24. The armored column was headed in the direction
of a militant camp at Haftanin, around 20 km (12 miles) from the
Habur border post, and near the Iraqi city of Zakho.