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Kurdish demonstrators storm UN office in
Geneva
2.3.2007
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March 2, 2007
GENEVA, -- Kurdish demonstrators forced their
way into the United Nations building here on
Thursday in protest at the reported poisoning of
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Around 20 demonstrators barged past UN security
guards and into the main courtyard of the Palais des
Nations before being ejected.
"Ocalan's been poisoned, that's why we're here," one
demonstrator, who gave his name as Erdam, told AFP.
Kurds from all over Switzerland had gathered in
protest, he added.
Ocalan is the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which has been fighting an armed separatist campaign
against Ankara since 1984. He has been in jail in
Turkey since 1999. |
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan Now, The only
prisoner on the Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of
Marmara. photo from ROJ TV |
His lawyers in Rome on Thursday claimed he has been
poisoned in jail, and demanded the UN send a medical
team to investigate.
Ocalan's defence team showed reporters in the
Italian capital the results of tests indicating the
presence of what they said were toxic metals in the
Kurdish leader's hair.
Italian lawyer Giuliano Pisapia said Ocalan was
suffering a "progressive poisoning" and ruled out
the possibility that the metals had entered his body
naturally.
"There are only two other possibilities -- poisoning
through his food or through his water," he told a
press conference.
Lawyer Mahmut Sakar called on the United Nations and
the Council of Europe to send an "independent
medical delegation" to examine the PKK chief.
AFP
** 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 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.
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
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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