Mainstream news on Kurds

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

lServer 2.20)
           id VT16869; Wed, 06 Sep 1995 16:51:01 -0800


Gunmen Kill Two Turks In Germany
      COLOGNE, Germany, Sept 3 (Reuter) - Gunmen shot dead a Turkish man and
his son outside a Turkish bar in the western city of Cologne before fleeing
by car, police said on Sunday.

    Police said they had detained two suspects, who were Turks, and were
hunting a third in their investigation of the shooting late on Saturday.

    A 42-year-old Turk died instantly and his 19-year-old son died in
hospital on Sunday morning. Another son of the dead man was wounded in the
attack, which police said did not appear to be politically motivated.

    Police say they later found the get-away car and the owner was detained
as a suspected accomplice. They also found a gun which had been abandoned in
a bush near the scene of the crime, which they said may have been used in the
attack.

    Turkish properties have been the target of a series of firebomb attacks
in Germany over the last two months.

    Police suspect the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), fighting for
autonomy or independence in southeastern Turkey, to be behind the arson
attacks.

Turkish And Iraqi Kurds Clash
      DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 2 (Reuter) - Iraqi Kurds from the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) on Saturday increased checkpoints in northern Iraq
after 12 Turkish Kurdish militants were killed in a clash, KDP officials and
the Anatolian news agency said.

    Anatolian said 12 guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
fighting for autonomy or independence in southeast Turkey, were killed on
Friday evening in a clash near Kani Masi in northern Iraq.

    The KDP, which last month reached a tentative ceasefire agreement with a
rival Iraqi Kurdish group, boosted checkpoints along the Zakho-Batufa road
running parallel with the Turkish border, KDP officials said.

    Last week the PKK emerged from mountain hideouts in northern Iraq to
attack targets in KDP-held territory.

    Fighting over the past year between the KDP and the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) has split northern Iraq into a patchwork of rival territories
and sources say the PKK wants to establish itself as a third force in the
region.

    U.S.-sponsored talks between the KDP and PUK in mid-August raised hope
that fighting between the Iraqi Kurdish groups would end in northern Iraq.

    Although the region is under Iraqi Kurdish rebel control, an allied
``no-fly zone'' was set up after the 1991 Gulf War to protect Kurds from
attack by Iraq's army following a large-scale assault in 1991.


Iran, Turkey and Syria Meet To Discuss Iraq
      NICOSIA, Sept 2 (Reuter) - Iran said on Saturday the foreign ministers
of Iran, Turkey and Syria would meet in Iran this month to discuss the
situation in northern Iraq, which is contested by rival Kurdish factions.

    The Iranian news agency IRNA quoted a foreign ministry official as saying
the meeting would definitely be held in Isfahan in early September.

    It said the ministers would review the situation in Iraq and ``threats
against Iraq's territorial integrity.'' All four countries have large and
sometimes restive Kurd minorities.




---
 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)