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Three Kurdish politicians arrested in
Turkey over rebel links
4.3.2007 |
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March 4, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Three Kurdish politicians have been
arrested in Turkey's southeast on charges of
spreading propaganda for armed separatist Kurdish
rebels, judicial sources said Saturday.
Sirin Tekik, Dicle Manap and Celallettin Padir --
all members of the country's main Kurdish party, the
Democratic Society Party (DTP) -- were remanded in
custody pending trial by a court in Batman late
Friday.
The court also issued an arrest warrant in absentia
for the DTP's provincial chairman Ayhan Karabulut on
the same charges, the sources said.
The arrests followed a raid on the DTP's office in
Batman Thursday during which authorities found
documents of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
and posters of its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Prior to the raid, the DTP's Batman office had
issued a press statement condemning the arrest of
three fellow party officials in neighbouring
Diyarbakir province over remarks that allegedly
threatened violence in Turkey.
Kurdish politicians are routinely suspected by
Ankara of supporting the PKK and are often
prosecuted for alleged links to the group, which has
been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast
since 1984.
The DTP was set up in November 2005, pledging to try
to resolve the Kurdish conflict through peaceful
means, but has so far made no progress.
It has come under fire for sympathizing with the PKK,
which is blacklisted as a terror group by Turkey,
the European Union and the United States.
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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