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EU court clears way for Kurdish PKK
terror-list challenge
18.1.2007 |
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LUXEMBOURG,
January 18 ,-- The European Union's top court ruled
on Thursday that the brother of jailed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan had the
right to fight the inclusion of the group on the
EU's terrorist list.
This was the second legal success in weeks for a
group challenging the EU terrorist list. A lower
court recently annulled an EU decision freezing the
funds of an exiled Iranian opposition group, the
People's Mujahideen.
The European Court of Justice ruled a lower court
was wrong in 2005 to dismiss a lawsuit by Osman
Ocalan seeking to have the PKK removed from the list
requiring EU states to freeze an organisation's
assets.
It ordered the Court of First Instance, the EU's
second most senior court, to re-examine the case.
"The Court of First Instance wrongly deduced from
examination of Mr Ocalan's statements that the PKK
no longer existed and could thus no longer be
represented by him," the higher court ruling said.
"The Court of Justice concluded that Mr Ocalan is
acting validly on behalf of the PKK and can also
instruct lawyers to represent it."
The PKK case is politically sensitive because
Turkish nationalists accuse Brussels of promoting
Kurdish separatism by insisting on cultural rights
such as broadcasting and schooling in the Kurdish
language as conditions for EU membership.
The Turkish government blames the PKK for more than
30,000 deaths since the group launched an armed
struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey
in 1984. Attacks have increased since the PKK called
off a unilateral ceasefire in 2004.
The United States, like the European Union,
blacklists the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
After the ruling in the Iranian case last month, the
EU Council's Secretariat, representing member
states, said it would consider appealing on points
of law to the higher European Court of Justice.
It played down the implications, saying the court
had not annulled the regulation establishing the
terrorism list, or other persons or entities named
on it.
The Dutch office of the Al Aqsa Foundation, a group
with alleged ties to the Palestinian militant group
Hamas, is also challenging inclusion on the
terrorist list.
It argues, like The People's Mujahideen, that EU
member states erred in not giving the reasons for
their decision, depriving the group of a chance to
defend itself
Reuters
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan"
Southeast Turkey. The Kurds have no rights in
Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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