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Turkey: Kurdish politician jailed for
calling PKK rebel leader 'Mr Ocalan'
7.3.2007 |
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March 7, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern-Turkey, -- A
Turkish court Tuesday jailed the chairman of the
country's main Kurdish party 'Ahmet Turk' for six
months over remarks deemed to praise jailed Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The Kurdish politician has been sentenced to six
months' imprisonment for referring to jailed Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan as "Mr Ocalan", Turkish
court officials said yesterday.
The court in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in the
mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey, found Democratic
Left Party (DTP) leader Ahmet Turk guilty of
"praising a criminal offender."
Lawyers for Turk said they would appeal the
sentence.
The case against Turk was initiated after he made a
speech in Diyabakir last year denouncing the
solitary confinement of Ocalan on the prison island
of Imrali in northwestern Turkey since his capture
in 1999. |
Ahmet Turk, Democratic Left Party (DTP) leader in
Turkey |
Tuesday's ruling against Ahmet Turk is the latest in
a wave of legal proceedings against his party, the
BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says.
According to one tally, more than 50 DTP members of
the pro-Kurdish DTP have been arrested and at least
seven senior officials charged in less than a
fortnight, our correspondent says.
Party officials argue they are victims of a
sustained campaign of harassment, saying the
authorities are trying to close the party down
before a general election later this year.
The DTP campaigns for greater cultural and political
rights for Turkey's large Kurdish population, our
correspondent says.
But she says the party is viewed with deep suspicion
by Turkish nationalists, who argue it is closely
tied to the Kurdish separatist cause.
Ocalan is the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which has fought for Kurdish self-rule in the
southeast since 1984, in a conflict that has claimed
more than 37,000 lives.
He is serving a life sentence for treason and
separatism.
Kurdish politicians are routinely suspected by
Ankara of supporting the PKK and are often
prosecuted for alleged links to the group which has
been blacklisted by Ankara, the United States and
the European Union.
AFP | BBC
** 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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