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Prosecutor throws out calls to investigate
Turkish PM
6.4.2007 |
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April
6, 2007
ANKARA, -- A senior Turkish prosecutor
rejected on Thursday calls for a judicial
investigation into Turkey's prime minister for
allegedly praising a Kurdish rebel leader.
Ankara's deputy chief prosecutor, Hikmet Onen, said
he had not found any "incriminating elements" in
remarks made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
during an interview with an Australian radio station
seven years ago.
He also ruled that the interview in which Erdogan
referred to rebel Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan as
"Sayin" -- a word meaning esteemed or honorable but
which also doubles for "mister" -- fell under the
statute of limitations. |
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
Several politicians from the country's main Kurdish
party have been indicted or jailed for referring to
Ocalan as "Sayin".
Under the Turkish penal code, praising a crime or
criminal offender is punishable by up to two years
in prison.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP)
and several individuals petitioned the prosecutor
last week for
the investigation. Erdogan categorically
rejected the allegations.
Ocalan is the head of the outlawed 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.
Considered by many as the country's public enemy
number one, he is serving a life sentence for
treason and separatism as the sole inmate on a
prison island since being convicted in 1999.
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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