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Kurdish politician Leyla Zana risks five
years in jail in Turkey
17.5.2007
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May 17, 2007
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- A Turkish prosecutor wants a five-year
jail term for internationally recognised Kurdish
politician Leyla Zana, accused of praising a jailed
Kurdish rebel leader, a news agency reported
Wednesday.
Zana has already spent a decade in jail for
collaborating with Abdullah Ocalan's rebels. The new
charges against her come as she is reportedly
preparing to run in July 22 elections in a bid to
return to the Turkish parliament, where she became
the first Kurdish woman deputy in 1991.
The charges stem from a speech the 46-year-old
politician made on March 21 at a Kurdish festival in
Diyarbakir, the largest city of the Kurdish-majority
southeast, Anatolia agency said.
She allegedly
named Ocalan, head of the banned Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), as one of the Kurds' national
leaders, along with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
and Massoud Barzani, president of the autonomous
Kurdistan region in (northern Iraq). |
Turkey's outspoken Kurdish rights advocate Leyla
Zana, Former Kurdish MP in Turkey
Zana spent a decade behind bars in Turkey for
speaking Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament after
taking her parliamentary oath. She was the first
Kurdish woman to be elected to Turkey's parliament |
"I am gratful to those three leaders... They all
have a place in the hearts and minds of the Kurds,"
she was quoted as saying in the indictment,
according to Anatolia.
The prosecutor argued that Zana's reference to
Ocalan amounted to spreading propaganda in favour of
the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by
Ankara and much of the international community.
It was not immediately clear when the trial would
start.
Zana and her colleagues were first sentenced to 15
years in jail in 1994 for membership of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has been
fighting a 22-year bloody campaign for Kurdish
self-rule in the country's southeast.
Zana spent a 10 years behind bars in Turkey for
alleged links with Kurdish armed rebels, They were
released in June 2004.
Zana, the first Kurdish woman to be elected to
Turkey's parliament, , who was imprisoned for
speaking Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament after
taking her parliamentary oath and for her political
actions which were considered against the unity of
Turkey.
She was awarded the 1995 Sakharov Prize by the
European Parliament, but was unable to collect it
until her release in 2004.
In March 2003, Zana and her co-defendants were
allowed a retrial after their original conviction
was condemned as unfair by the European Court of
Human Rights in 2001.
The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish
self-rule in the southeast since 1984. The conflict
has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Ocalan was captured in Kenya in 1999. He is serving
a life sentence for treason and separatism in the
northwestern island of Imrali.
AFP
** More
about Kurdish Activist Leyla Zana
** 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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