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Turkey: Prosecutor seeks 15 years for Kurdish
mayors over Denmark letter
3.4.2007 |
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April
3, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- A prosecutor Tuesday sought jail
terms of up to 15 years for 53 Kurdish mayors on
trial in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey on charges
of supporting separatist Kurdish rebels.
The mayors have been on trial since September over a
letter they wrote to Danish Prime Minister Anders
Fogh Rasmussen in December 2005, asking him to
ignore Ankara's calls to ban the Denmark-based
Kurdish television station Roj TV, which is
allegedly linked to the rebels.
The prosecutor argued Tuesday that the defendants
had "knowingly and willingly" supported the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a
bloody separatist campaign against Ankara in the
mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984.
The Turkish authorities say Roj TV is a mouthpiece
of the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara,
the European Union and the United States.
The prosecutor asked for jail terms of seven years
and a half to 15 years for 53 mayors, all members of
the Democratic Society Party, the main legal Kurdish
political movement in Turkey.
Among them is Osman Baydemir, one of Turkey's most
popular Kurdish politicians and mayor of Diyarbakir,
the largest city in southeast Turkey.
Roj TV, the prosecutor said, regularly carries PKK
statements and interviews with PKK commanders, thus
"it is an indisputable fact that Roj TV is the
mouthpiece of the PKK terrorist organisation and...
serves its objectives."
He called for the acquittal of three mayors who said
their names were placed among signatories on the
letter without their knowledge.
The defendants, none of whom attended the hearing,
have rejected the charges, saying the letter meant
to defend freedom of the press and the interests of
the Kurdish people in the southeast, where Roj TV
enjoys a wide audience.
The mayors had written to Rasmussen that silencing
Roj TV "would mean the loss of an important vehicle
in the struggle for democracy and human rights" in
Turkey.
They said efforts to press Denmark into banning the
channel contradicted Turkey's commitment to improve
its democracy record in its bid to join the European
Union.
The court adjourned the hearing to May 8 for a
possible verdict.
Kurdish politicians are traditionally suspected of
supporting the PKK and are routinely prosecuted for
alleged links to the group.
Roj TV has become a thorn in the side of
Turkish-Danish relations.
During a visit to Copenhagen in November 2005,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
boycotted a joint news conference with Rasmussen
after the Dane rejected his request that a Roj TV
reporter be barred from entry.
Danish authorities have said that Roj TV's
programming contains no incitement to hatred of
Turkey and there is no proof it is linked to the PKK.
Under EU pressure, Turkey has in recent years
broadened Kurdish cultural freedoms, including the
introduction of limited Kurdish-language television
and radio broadcasts.
Kurdish activists, however, say the reforms are
inadequate and have called notably for a general
amnesty for PKK militants to encourage them to lay
down their arms.
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.
The United States and the European Union, like
Turkey, class the PKK as a "terrorist organisation"
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.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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