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Turkish court rules out restrictions on
Kurdish DTP party
27.12.2007
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December
27, 2007
Ankara, -- Turkey's Constitutional Court
Thursday rejected prosecution demands to slap
restrictions on the main Kurdish DTP party while it
is hearing a case against it for alleged links with
separatist rebels, Anatolia news agency reported.
The court said there was no reason to bar the
Democratic Society Party (DTP) from contesting
elections or prevent its members from running on the
ticket of other parties or as independents, Anatolia
reported.
The court also rejected demands to block any
treasury assistance the party could be entitled to
and to stop the recruitment of new members, it said. |
Democratic Society Party (DTP), the pro-Kurdish
political party in Turkey |
The DTP welcomed the
ruling, but did not see it as any indication that
the case, which is seeking to close the party down,
would go in its favour.
"It is a positive decision, even though it does not
constitute any signal on the essence of the case,"
senior DTP deputy Selahattin Demirtas said.
"The prosecution demands were unlawful and the court
did what the law requires," he said.
The restriction requests were part of a charge sheet
that Turkey's chief prosecutor submitted to the
Constitutional Court in November.
The prosecutor wants the DTP to be outlawed, arguing
it has become"a hive of activity" targeting national
unity through its links with the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara lists
as a terrorist group.
The case is expected to take at least six months.
The DTP, which holds 20 seats in the 550-member
parliament, denies links with the PKK.www.ekurd.net
Its members, however,
have come under fire for refusing to brand the group
a terrorist organisation and often voicing sympathy
for the rebels.
Party chairman Nurettin Demirtas, who has served
time in prison for belonging to the PKK,
was arrested this month
on charges of using a false medical report to evade
compulsory military service.
The legal assault on the DTP comes amid Turkish
bombing raids on PKK targets in neighbouring
northern Iraq since December 16, prompted by
increased rebel violence this year.
Turkey has banned several Kurdish parties for
alleged links with the rebels.
Over 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
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 group is listed as a terrorist organisation by
Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
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,
a 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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