ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey has called on state-owned broadcasting company to
avoid calling Kurdish citizens of Turkey "Kurds" or using terms which might suggest
sympathy for Kurdish rebels, news reports said Friday.

The new Interior Ministry guidelines for reporting on Kurdish issues were sent earlier this
week to TRT, the state-owned television station, the daily Turkish News reported. A similar
report was carried in the Turkish Daily News.

An official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, confirmed that the guidelines
were issued.

Turkey does not recognize its 12 million Kurds as a minority and views Kurdish cultural
identity as a threat to the Turkish state. Turkish troops have fought a 15-year war against
Kurdish rebels in the country's southeast. Some 37,000 people have died as a
result of the conflict.

According to the memorandum, broadcasters should avoid references to "Kurds" or "people
of Kurdish descent", and should instead talk about "Turkish citizens," the Turkish News
reported.

The banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, should be described simply as "the terrorist
organization," it said. Most broadcasters already use that term to describe the PKK.

The guidelines also bar references to a "Kurdish state" in northern Iraq, an autonomous area
dominated by Kurdish groups since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. It says the term "entity in
Northern Iraq" should be used.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com