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Turkish journalists acquitted of helping Kurdish
PKK rebels
25.5.2007 |
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May
25, 2007
Istanbul, -- A Turkish court acquitted on
Thursday nine human rights workers and journalists,
including a reporter for Reuters, of giving help to
Kurdish rebel fighters.
"No evidence could be found to support the
accusation that the suspects were facing," Judge Ali
Imran Altin told the court in the eastern city of
Malatya.
The reporter for Reuters, Turkish national Ferit
Demir, who is based in the Kurdish eastern town of
Tunceli, and other defendants were detained in
August 2005 while observing the handover of a
soldier abducted by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) to a human rights group.
The gendarmerie, a paramilitary force overseeing
security in rural areas, asked state prosecutors to
open a case against the nine for spreading
propaganda on behalf of Kurdish guerrillas.
The nine defendants, who were free pending the
trial, denied the accusations.
Defence lawyer Enver Erdal Simsek said the
prosecution had demanded one to three years in jail
for each defendant.
Journalists have often fallen foul of Turkish
authorities over coverage of the Kurdish conflict in
the impoverished southeast.
Turkey's centre-right AK Party government has eased
curbs on the media and on Kurdish language and
culture as it seeks European Union membership.
Demir also works for the private Turkish news agency
Dogan.
PKK rebels held the soldier captive for nearly four
weeks in a remote region in the southeast before
releasing him.
More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984
when the PKK, blacklisted by Turkey, the United
States and the European Union, took up arms for
self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast
of Turkey.
Turkey blames the PKK, classified by the European
Union and the United States as a terrorist
organisation, for the deaths and the economic damage
inflicted on the southeast over more than two
decades, AFP reported.
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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