More Kurds killed in Turkey airstrikes

The Turkish military launched airstrikes on Kurdish rebel positions in southeastern Turkey on Friday evening, killing 19 people, the military said.

The strikes followed a rebel attack on a military outpost in Hakkari province in which two Turkish soldiers were killed, according to the military's Web site. Turkey has been staging military attacks against rebels with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, in Turkey and in northern Iraq. The PKK is a leftist insurgent group that formed in 1984 to fight for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.

These people ask nothing more than what Kosovo people asked and the Americans were so ready to recognize. If Kosovo people have a right for independence then Kurds have the history and the millions of people to support them as well.

Turkey kills 150 Kurdish

Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq this week left more than 150 Kurdish rebels dead, the Turkish army says.

"According to initial estimates, this operation allowed us to neutralize more than 150 terrorists," the army said in a statement on its website. A PKK spokesman said that only six rebels were killed and they were from a different faction.

Turkey has staged several cross-border raids into northern Iraq over the past few months in pursuit of the rebels. The strikes, which began on Thursday and ended on Friday, were carried out against PKK guerrillas based in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, the Turkish army says.

All targeted posts in Qandil area were destroyed during the operation, according to the Turkish army's statement. But a PKK spokesman, Ahmed Danees, told the Reuters news agency only six rebels died and they were from a faction fighting against Iran.

Turkey is building up more genocide! It was the Armenian now it is the Kurds!!! Who knows how many innocent have died from the Turkish bombs and shootings the last years from innocent Kurds who only ask for their freedom?

Turkish police beats May Day marchers

Turkish riot police have used tear gas and water cannon to prevent protesters from staging a banned May Day rally in the centre of Istanbul.

The authorities say 505 people were arrested and several were hurt as crowds tried to reach Taksim Square. Stones and bottles were thrown at security forces and police wearing gas masks broke up the demonstrators.

The Turkish government banned May Day celebrations in and around the square after 34 people died in 1977. Turkey's three main union confederations had announced they would try to hold a rally, but eventually they gave up because of the clashes.

Police set up barricades around the square to enforce the ban, imposed after officials said they had received reports that radicals were planning violent protests. Local media said six police and an unknown number of demonstrators were injured.

Too much about turkey leading towards democracy. It took only hours to prove how many wrong things there are in this Asian country!

Turkey becomes …very slowly democracy

Turkey's parliament has approved the softening of a law criticized by the EU for limiting free speech.

Article 301 of the penal code has been used to prosecute Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and other intellectuals. Since 2003, hundreds of people have been tried under the controversial law for "insulting Turkishness".

However, critics argue the amendments do not go far enough. Insulting the Turkish nation will still be a crime, punishable by two years in jail. Parliament voted 250-65 in favor of a government-backed proposal to make changes to the law late on Tuesday night.

Under the reformed law:

It will be a crime to insult the Turkish nation, rather than Turkishness.

The justice minister will be required to open each case.

The maximum sentence will be two years in jail, rather than three.

The EU has long called for changes to Article 301, arguing that the law places severe restrictions on free speech in Turkey. The issue has threatened to scupper Turkey's EU accession talks.

Amazing and inexcusable that any country in the civil world would ever have this kind of laws! I hope you noticed that the Turks ...soften the law!!! these are very ...slow steps towards democracy!

UN condemns Turkey border deaths

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has accused Turkish police of causing the deaths of four men by forcing them into a river on the Turkey-Iraq border.

The strong current swept the men away, the UNHCR said, quoting witnesses. The incident happened on Wednesday at an unpatrolled stretch of the border near the Habur crossing point, in Sirnak province, the UNHCR said.

At least one of the four was an Iranian. They were among 18 Iranians and Syrians refused entry into Iraq. There has been no comment from the Turkish authorities.

And does anybody thinks that Turkey cares if UN condemns, they are killing daily innocent Kurds, they occupy European land and they will care for a few more dead?