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Eight Kurdish politicians jailed in Turkey for
aiding separatist rebels
6.4.2007 |
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April
6, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- Eight Kurdish politicians were
sentenced to three years and nine months in jail
Friday for aiding armed Kurdish rebels fight a
bloody campaign in Turkey's southeast, court
officials said.
All the defendants were from the Democratic Society
Party (DTP), the main Kurdish party in Turkey which
has recently become the target of a judicial
crackdown by authorities.
The trial against Hidir Aytac, the head of the DTP
provincial branch in the eastern city of Tunceli,
and seven other party members was launched after a
militant from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) implicated them in his testimony after his
surrender to Turkish forces.
The defendants rejected the charges but the court in
the eastern city of Malatya found them guilty of
"aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation".
Aytac said they would appeal the sentence, arguing
that the PKK militant who accused them had later
retracted his initial testimony.
The PKK has been waging an armed campaign for
self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish-populated
southeast since 1984 in a conclift which has claimed
more than 37,000 lives.
The DTP is frequently accused of supporting the PKK.
Several of its members have been prosecuted for
links with the group, which is listed as a terrorist
organisation by Ankara, the European Union and the
United States.
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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