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France: Thousands rally for 'poisoned' PKK
leader of Turkish Kurds
13.5.2007
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May 13, 2007
STRASBOURG , -- Several thousand Kurds
protested in the French city of Strasbourg on
Saturday against the alleged poisoning of Abdullah
Ocalan by the Turkish authorities and demanded that
the jailed Kurdish leader be examined by independent
doctors. Police estimated that around 18,000 Kurds
participated in the demonstration.
Holding up flags bearing Ocalan's portrait and
banners proclaiming "Free Ocalan," and "Peace in
Kurdistan," the demonstrators started a march from
the city's railway station to a stadium where a
meeting was due to take place.
"We are here to support the 18 hunger strikers" who
are on the 32nd day of their protest in Strasbourg
to push for private doctors to examine Ocalan, said
Dogan Fitan, one of the organisers of Saturday's
solidarity rally.
"We want independent doctors to be sent to the
island of Imrali," where Ocalan is being held, he
said, adding that the demonstrators had come from
Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands and Switzerland.
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 Kurdish leader PKK, Abdullah Ocalan,
is held to examine whether he is being poisoned
Ocalan's lawyers say the 58-year-old has been
experiencing breathing and skin problems, as well as
pains severe enough to interrupt his sleep.
The leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK), Ocalan has been serving a life sentence for
treason since 1999.
The PKK has waged a bloody separatist campaign in
the mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984. It is
listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United
States and the European Union.
The protestors want to pressure the Strasbourg-based
Council of Europe, which was founded in 1949 and
seeks to develop common and democratic principles
throughout the continent, to send an "independent
team" to examine Ocalan.
Council of Europe general secretary Terry Davis this
week expressed concern over the health of the hunger
strikers and said the organisation was closely
following the conditions under which Ocalan was
being detained.
The European Court of Human Rights in May 2005 ruled
that Ocalan had not been given a fair trial in
Turkey and called for a re-trial.
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. |
About 18,000 Kurdish demonstrators coming from
France Germany and Switzerland gathered Saturday May
12, 2007 in the streets of Strasbourg eastern France
to ask for the liberation of their leader Abdullah
Ocalan, pictured on flags, arrested in1999 and who
is serving a life sentence in a Turkish jail. AP
Jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. The only
prisoner on the Imrali Island in the Turkish Sea of
Marmara. photo from ROJ TV |
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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