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Turkey: Prosecutors seek jail for 54
pro-Kurdish mayors
12.12.2007
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December
12, 2007
Diyarbakir, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- State prosecutors demanded jail sentences
on Tuesday for 54 Kurdish mayors in southeastern
Turkey for suggesting that jailed Kurdish PKK rebel
leader Abdullah Öcalan may have been poisoned.
The prosecutors said the mayors had praised Öcalan
and his actions at a joint news conference in March
when they asked authorities to investigate claims
that the PKK leader was gradually being poisoned in
prison.
Öcalan was captured in 1999 and sentenced to life
imprisonment, but members of his outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) continue to battle security
forces in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
The 54 mayors, all from the pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP), are standing trial and could
face up to two years in prison if convicted.
Turkish doctors examined Öcalan after the claims
that he was being systematically exposed to toxins
that could threaten his life, but found no evidence
of any poisoning.
The 54 mayors are also on trial over a letter they
wrote to the Danish prime minister urging him to
resist Turkish pressure to shut down the Kurdish
channel ROJ TV,www.ekurd.net
which broadcasts from
Denmark.
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation".
More than 37,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. A large Kurdish
community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK
rebels for a
Kurdish homeland in the Kurdish
southeast of Turkey (northern Kurdistan).
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, granting them full
political freedoms.
The (PKK) KONGRA-GEL released an
official declaration
reiterating their desire for negotiations with the
Turkish government.
todayszaman com
**
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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