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Turkish court charges 92 Kurdish women
over illegal Women's Day demo
8.3.2007 |
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March 8, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish southeast of Turkey,
March 8, -- A court in the mainly Kurdish southeast
of Turkey on Thursday charged 92 women over a
demonstration to mark International Women's Day that
saw them shouting slogans in favour of jailed
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, a court
official said.
The women, four of them under 18 years old and one
as old as 77, had chanted pro-separatist slogans
during an unauthorised demonstration on Wednesday in
Sirnak province near the Syrian border in mainly
Kurdish southeast Turkey, officials said.
It was not immediately clear how long they might
have to spend in jail if convicted.
Separately, authorities also arrested a senior
official of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP) for allegedly making propaganda on behalf of
Ocalan's separatist rebels, who are battling
security forces in southeast Turkey.
The court in the town of Cizre, Sirnak province,
charged the women with violating the law on public
demonstrations in Monday's protest, tasking a local
prosecutor with drawing up an indictment against
them.
Thirty-one of the protestors were remanded in
custody pending trial while the rest were released,
the official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
added.
The women -- among them members of the country's
main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party --
were detained after they blocked Cizre's main street
to traffic and refused police orders to disperse.
Ayhan Karabulut, head of the DTP in Batman province,
was also accused of praising Ocalan.
DTP leader Ahmet Turk received a six month jail
sentence earlier this week for using the respectful
form of address "Sayin", similar to the English
"Sir", in referring to Ocalan.
Turk and his deputy Aysel Tugluk also each face
separate sentences of 18 months in jail over the
distribution of DTP leaflets in the Kurdish
language. Turkish law allows distribution of
political literature only in Turkish.
The flurry of court cases against Kurdish activists
comes amid an upsurge in Turkish nationalism ahead
of presidential and
parliamentary elections later this year.
Spring is traditionally a tense time in Turkey's
southeast when Kurds celebrate the ancient festival
of Newroz -- often a flashpoint for separatist
violence -- and when separatist guerrillas usually
increase their attacks on security forces.
The group also shouted slogans in favour of Ocalan,
drawing attention to recent claims by his lawyers
that he is being poisoned while serving a life
sentence in a Turkish prison island.
Ocalan, considered by many as public enemy number
one, is the head of the oulawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) which has led a bloody campaign since
1984 for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey in
a conflict that has claimed more than
37,000 lives so far.
AFP | Reuters
** 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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