Turkey: 37,000 people lost their lives in Kurd conflict

About 37,000 people have been killed in a 13 year old armed conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish rebels fighting for a self rule area in the east and the southeast of Turkey.

President Suleyman Demirel, announcing the number of deaths, vowed to continue the war. "We are determined to defend our territorial integrity until the end," Demirel told reporters during a news conference.

The West has strongly criticized Turkey for its brutal tactics against the rebels, among which are forcibly evacuating villages that the Turks say shelter Kurdish guerrillas.

The Turkish parliament reported that the army has illegally evacuated some 2,500 villages and that about half a million people in the east and the southeast of the country, mostly inhabited by Kurds, have been forced to leave their home because the PKK guerrillas launched attacks in 1984 in the area.