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Turkey: Mardin Mayor sentenced for
supporting Kurdish PKK
26.1.2007 |
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DIYARBAKIR,
Turkey, January 25, -- The mayor of a province in
the heavily Kurdish southeastern Turkey was
sentenced on Thursday to two years in jail for
supporting the banned PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party)
in a speech at the funeral of one of its guerrillas,
court officials said.
The court ruled that Mardin Mayor Cemal Veske had no
reason to attend the funeral as he was not a
relative or friend of the guerrilla -- killed by
Turkish forces in 2005 -- and so his presence
amounted to propaganda.
More than 30,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for a Kurdish homeland in the country's
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
He also said in a speech that the only people who
were addressing the Kurdish problem were the PKK,
the officials said.
Several other mayors from the region have been tried
for supporting the PKK, which broke off a five-year
ceasefire in 2004.
The organisation declared another unilateral
ceasefire last year, which the Turkish military has
not recognised and continues to fight the group in
the mountainous southeast.
Turkey, the European Union which Turkey seeks to
join, and the United States consider the PKK a
terrorist group.
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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