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Kurdish woman activist leaves jail for
parliament in Turkey
25.7.2007
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July 25, 2007
GEBZE, Turkey, -- A jailed Kurdish activist
elected to Turkey's legislature in Sunday's
elections was released Tuesday under legal
provisions that grant judicial immunity to members
of parliament.
A crowd of supporters greeted Sebahat Tuncel, who
ran in Sunday's elections as an independent from
Istanbul, as she emerged under tight security from a
prison in the town of Gebze near Istanbul.
"Our people have tasked me with an important mission
in its struggle for democracy and peace," she said.
"I will do my best to fulfill this mission."
Tuncel was jailed nine months ago and was awaiting
trial on charges of belonging to the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been
fighting a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in
the southeast since 1984.
Turkish law grants full judicial immunity to
parliament members. They can be taken to court only
if parliament lifts their immunity.
Tuncel is among 24 Kurdish politicians who won seats
in Sunday's elections, marking a comeback of
militant Kurds to parliament after a 13-year
absence.
They ran as independent candidates to circumvent a
10-percent national threshold that would have left
their Democratic Society Party (DTP) out of
parliament.
They are expected to re-group under the DTP banner
once they are sworn in.
Kurdish politicians in Turkey are routinely
suspected of being tools of the PKK's separatist
ambitions.
The first stint in parliament of Kurds campaigning
for minority rights ended in disaster in 1994, when
their immunity was lifted on charges of aiding the
PKK.
Some of them, including human rights award winner
Leyla Zana, were jailed; others went into exile and
one joined the
PKK.
Since then, Turkey, under European Union pressure,
has granted the Kurdish minority a measure of
cultural freedom and lifted emergency rule in the
southeast. |
Independent Kurdish candidate Sebahat Tuncel, who is
backed by pro-Kurdish DTP party, waves to supporters
as she is freed from a jail in Gebze near Istanbul
July 24, 2007. Tuncel was elected parliamentarian in
Turkey's parliamentary elections on Sunday. Reuters
Newly elected pro-Kurdish lawmaker Sebahat Tuncel is
greeted by her supporters after she was released
from a prison in Gebze, near Istanbul, western
Turkey, Tuesday July 24, 2007. Sebahat Tuncel, who
won a seat in Sundays general elections, was in
prison awaiting trial on accusations of membership
in the outlawed separatist Kurdish rebel group,
Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Turkish legislators
have legal immunity and Tuncel was released after
the election authorities confirmed the poll results.
AP |
Kurds, however, still complain of discrimination and
ask for Kurdish to be taught in schools and used in
all fields of
public life.
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.
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.
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 25 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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