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Turkish prosecutor asks Kurdish party to
end membership of prominent Kurdish politician Layla
Zana
17.5.2007
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Turkish
prosecutor asks Kurdish party to end membership of
former lawmakers, others
May 17, 2007
Ankara, -- Turkey's top prosecutor ordered
the main Kurdish party Thursday to expel four
members due to convictions for collaborating with
separatist rebels, a party official said.
The Democratic Society Party (DTP) duly cancelled
their membership, the party's deputy chairman said,
dealing a possible blow to the four, among them
award-winning activist Leyla Zana, in their reported
ambitions to stand in July 22 elections.
The prosecutor's office of the country's Appeals
Court ordered the party to end the membership of 116
people, including prominent politician Leyla Zana,
for having criminal records, or risk being shut
down. It also said that they cannot assume other
positions in the party's structure.
Zana's lawyer Yusuf Alatas denounced the chief
prosecutor's move as a "politically-motivated
demand" and "a signal to other state institutions
that these people should not be allowed to run in
legislative elections."
Zana and her colleagues, Hatip Dicle, Selim Sadak
and Orhan Dogan, entered parliament in 1991 on the
ticket of a social democratic party, but lost their
seats three years later for having links with
separatist Kurdish rebels. |
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 |
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..
Zana already faces
a new trial for spreading separatist propaganda,
in which she risks serving five years in jail.
The DTP announced last week that it would field
independent candidates in the elections in order to
bypass a 10-percent threshold for parliamentary
representation that has so far kept Kurdish parties
out of the house.
Zana and her colleagues are largely expected to be
among the DTp members running as independent
candidates, but to do so they need approval from
Turkey's Higher Electoral Board.
Last week, parliament adopted a bill widely seen as
a bid to also hinder Kurdish politicians running as
independent candidates from winning seats.
Under the bill, which needs the president's approval
to come into force, the names of independents will
appear on the
same ballot paper as those of political parties,
instead of on separate slips.
Illiteracy is high in the impoverished, mainly
Kurdish southeast, the DTP's traditional power base,
and the new measure could make it difficult for
voters to pick out their candidate's name from the
long list on the ballot paper.
The return of Kurdish lawmakers to Parliament could
stir fresh tensions with nationalists who view them
as a threat to the Turkish state.
It was not clear if Zana or her friends would be
able to run for Parliament again. The prosecutor's
office on Thursday said the country's electorate
board would have the final say on the issue.
Kurdish parties in Turkey are often accused of ties
to the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK,
which has recently escalated hit-and-run attacks
from bases in northern Iraq and inside Turkey.
DEHAP, the predecessor of today's Kurdish party
dissolved itself in 2005 as prosecutors tried to
close it on charges of being a focal point for
separatist activities and having ties to Kurdish
guerrillas. The constitutional court has closed down
four previous pro-Kurdish parties, including DEHAP's
predecessor, in 2003.
The conflict between autonomy-seeking Kurdish
guerrillas and the government has claimed the lives
of tens of thousands
of people since the guerrillas took up arms in 1984.
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
AFP | AP
** 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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