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Turkish prosecutor probes Kurdish mayors for
claiming rebel leader was poisoned
29.4.2007 |
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April
29, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey: A Turkish prosecutor is
investigating whether 54 Kurdish mayors broke the
law by claiming last month that rebel leader
Abdullah Ocalan was being poisoned in his prison
cell, the government-run Anatolia news agency
reported Saturday.
Last month, mayors belonging to the Kurdish
Democratic Society Party asked for an independent
group of doctors to examine Ocalan to establish
whether he was being poisoned. Turkish authorities
said tests on Ocalan showed no signs that he was
being poisoned and called the allegations "complete
lies."
A prosecutor in the predominantly Kurdish city of
Diyarbakir was investigating whether the mayors'
statement amounted to propaganda on behalf of terror
groups, Anatolia said.
Ocalan, 58, is the leader of the Kurdistan Workers
Party, or PKK, and remains an influential figure for
many of Turkey's disaffected Kurds, and an object of
intense hatred for many Turks.
He was initially sentenced to death after his
capture in 1999, but his sentence was commuted to
life in prison after Turkey abolished capital
punishment in 2002. He is the sole inmate on Imrali,
in the Marmara Sea off Istanbul.
The PKK has waged war for autonomy in Turkey's
southeast since 1984. The group often stages
cross-border attacks from bases in neighboring Iraq
and operates small bands of rebels inside Turkey.
The mayors are currently on trial for allegedly
supporting the PKK by asking Denmark's prime
minister to keep a Kurdish television station on the
air. Turkey says the station is the mouthpiece of
the PKK.
AP
** 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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