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EU parliamentarians: 80,000 Kurds demand
Öcalan be examined by independent doctors
12.5.2007
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May 12, 2007
STRASBOURG , -- More than 80,000 Kurds have
signed a petition calling on the Council of Europe
to send an independent team of doctors to the
Turkish jail where the leader outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, is held to
examine whether he is being poisoned, a left-wing
group in the European Parliament said Friday.
Ocalan's lawyers in Italy said that an analysis of
his hair showed large amounts of strontium and
chromium, both of which are toxic in high doses - an
indicator of chronic poisoning.
Turkish authorities said tests on Öcalan showed no
signs that he was being poisoned and called the
allegations "complete lies."
"So far, we have more than 80,000 signatures from
all over the world. People tried to reach us by
post, mail, fax and by phone, it was amazing," said
German EU parliamentarian Feleknas Uca of the GUE/NGL
group uniting Europe's Communist and far-left
parties. |
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. The only
prisoner on the Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of
Marmara. photo from ROJ TV |
Several dozen Kurds have been on a hunger strike in
Strasbourg for a month to demand that the council
ensures an independent medical investigation of the
case. Some of them have been hospitalized, prompting
Terry Davis, the council's chairman, to urge them to
end the hunger strike.
The human rights watchdog's anti-torture committee
"is closely examining the situation regarding the
detention of Abdullah Öcalan in all its aspects,"
Davis said.
A mass rally of Kurds is planned in Strasbourg on
Saturday.
Ocalan 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 mainly Kurdish
Turkey's southeast since 1984.
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 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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