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Turkey condemned over filmmaker biography at Europe
court
11.5.2007 |
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May
11, 2007
STRASBOURG ,-- A Turkish publisher who had
been fined for publishing a biography of Kurdish
filmmaker Yilmaz Guney won his case against Turkey
at the European Court of Human Rights Thursday.
Saim Ustun, 40, from Istanbul, was the owner of a
small publishing company which reprinted in 2000 a
biography of the late filmmaker, whose movie "Yol"
(Road) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film
festival in 1982 but was banned in Turkey for 15
years.
The film examines various forms of social and
political oppression in Turkish society and deals
with Kurdish nationalism.
Although the first edition of the book in 1992
encountered no problems, the publisher was accused
on its reprint of disseminating separatist
propaganda and in 2003 sentenced to pay a 1,700-euro
fine.
The conviction was nullified several months later
and the fine reimbursed.
However, the Strasbourg-based court ruled that the
publisher's freedom of expression had been violated
because of unjustified interference by the state in
the publication.
The European court said the book did "not encourage
violence, armed resistance or insurrection" and did
not constitute hate speech, even if its tone was
hostile and the book politicised.
The European judges also questioned why the Turkish
authorities had only taken action against the
publisher for the reprint and not the first edition,
something the authorities failed to explain.
The court granted Ustun 2,000 euros (2,700 US
dollars) in damages.
Guney, a leftist writer, actor and filmmaker, was
stripped of his citizenship in 1983 and died in
exile in France a year later.
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 over 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 over 25 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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