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Kurdish rebel leader's former lawyers risk
jail in Turkey
4.12.2007
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December
4, 2007
ISTANBUL, Turkey,-- Two former lawyers for
jailed Kurdish PKK rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan face
up to 15 years in prison on charges of belonging to
the Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
a report said Tuesday.
An Istanbul prosecutor filed the charges against
Irfan Dundar and Mahmut Sakar for claiming earlier
this year that PKK leader Ocalan is being
progressively poisoned in prison, Anatolia news
agency reported.
Dundar and Sakar were among Turkish and Italian
lawyers who made the claim at a press conference in
Rome in March, citing test results indicating what
they described as toxic metals, including high
levels of chromium and strontium.
The charge sheet said the two lawyers' allegations
had served as an order to PKK sympathisers in Turkey
and abroad to carry out protests and spread the
organisation's propaganda, Anatolia said.
It asked for up to 15 years imprisonment for both on
grounds that they are PKK members.
An arrest warrant was issued against Sakar, who used
to serve in a senior position in a now-banned
Kurdish party, Anatolia said.
Turkey has denied the poisoning claims, saying
toxicology tests conducted on the jailed leader were
negative.
Ocalan, 58, has been serving a life sentence for
treason and separatism as the sole inmate on a
prison island in the Marmara Sea since his capture
and conviction in 1999.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK took up arms for self-rule in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish east and southeast.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by
Turkey, EU and the US, but sympathisers among
Turkey's large Kurdish community consider its
members freedom fighters.
AFP
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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.
Others estimate over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds,
large Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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