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At least 12,000 Kurds protest in
Strasbourg for PKK head's release
11.2.2007
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Kurds march in France to demand rebel leader Ocalan
be freed
February 11, 2007
STRASBOURG, France,-- Thousands of Kurds
marched through this eastern French city on Saturday
to demand that jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan
be freed.
About 12,000 people took part in the annual march
commemorating the Feb. 15, 1999, detention of Ocalan,
according to police estimates.
The peaceful march ended in the city's soccer
stadium shortly after noon. Strasbourg is the seat
of the European Union's parliament and the European
Court of Human Rights.
Ocalan was captured in 1999 in Kenya and sentenced
to death on charges of treason, but the death
sentence was commuted when Turkey later abolished
the death penalty. He is in solitary confinement on
a prison island in the Marmara Sea, off Istanbul. |
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan |
Kurds, primarily from Germany, the Netherlands and
Belgium, have been campaigning in February for
Ocalan's release in Strasbourg, which is the seat of
the European Court of Human Rights.
The organizers of the demonstration said that 25,000
people took part, while the police put the figure at
12,000.
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
Turkey is home to some 20 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey
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.
AP | DPA
**
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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