"The Real Challenge for U.S.-Turkish Relations: Turkish Kurds
Handan T. Satiroglu | Bio | 26 Apr 2007
World Politics Watch Exclusive
In the past couple of months, news about Turkey has been littered with reports about the spasms of violence between Turkish troops and militants of the terrorist Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) in the rugged, mountainous eastern part of the country. After a decade of cease-fire, old hatreds have resurfaced with a vengeance, costing the lives of more than 250 soldiers in the past year, and 10 soldiers and 29 Kurdish guerillas this month alone. Mothers and wives kneeling and wailing over their sehit (martyr) sons draped in the Turkish flag have become regular images on Turkish television screens and in Turkish newspapers. 'The last glance at his father,' read a recent headline in an emotionally charged article, juxtaposed with a picture of an infant gazing at his father's lifeless body at the funeral."
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