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Two Kurdish youths probed for pro-Kurd
comments in SE Turkey
15.3.2007
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March 15, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Turkish prosecutors launched an
investigation on Wednesday into two teenagers for
allegedly making Kurdish separatist comments and
insisting an ancient festival celebrated this month
is Kurdish, not Turkish.
They could be charged under an article of Turkey's
penal code that forbids the "incitement of hatred
and enmity among people", a court official said.
The two students, aged 17 and 18, allegedly
contradicted an army officer teaching a class at
their school who said the Newroz festival was
Turkish and had been celebrated by the Turks since
they moved westwards from Central Asia many
centuries ago.
The official quoted the boys as saying: "Newroz is a
Kurdish festival. At the moment we celebrate Newroz
under your (Turkish) flag, but the day will come
when we will celebrate it beneath our own flag".
The teenagers have denied making such a comment, he
added.
Kurdish nationalism remains a highly sensitive issue
in the European Union candidate country. More than
30,000 Turkish soldiers and PKK guerrillas have been
killed since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for
self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast
of Turkey..
Turkey has eased some restrictions on the Kurdish
language and culture as part of its efforts to join
the EU. But Brussels says Ankara needs to do more to
boost freedom of expression.
Newroz, which means "new day" in the Kurdish
language, is an ancient rite marking the arrival of
spring and is widely celebrated in Turkey, Iran and
Central Asia.
Newroz, or Nevruz in Turkish, is not a public
holiday in Turkey and the biggest celebrations take
place in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the
country, where people wear brightly coloured clothes
and jump over bonfires.
'Newroz' is the traditional Kurdish new year, The
year 2007 corresponds to the Kurdish year 2619. All
Kurds around the world are celebrating the new year
'Newroz'.
The Kurdish calendar starts at 612 BC. This is the
year that Cyaxares, the grandson of Deioces (Díyako),
the first king of the Medes' empire, occupied
Nineveh and put the end to the brutality of the
Assyrian empire in the lands under its occupation.
The festival has long been a rallying call for
Kurdish nationalists. Public celebrations were
illegal in Turkey before the capture of Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999. He is now
serving a life jail sentence on an island near
Istanbul.
This week, Turkish officials have urged Kurds to
avoid violence during this year's Newroz
celebrations on March 21.
In a further sign of political tensions, Turkish
prosecutors have recently brought charges against a
number of officials from the pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP) for allegedly praising Ocalan
and his outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Source: 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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