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Row erupts over jailed Turkey Kurdish MP
Sebahat Tuncel
28.7.2007
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July 28, 2007
Ankara, Turkey, -- An argument is brewing in
Turkey over a pro-Kurdish member of the country's
new parliament who stood in the recent elections
from prison.
Sebahat Tuncel was on trial for membership of an
illegal armed organisation linked to the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
She was granted immunity when she won a seat in
parliament and
released from custody earlier
this week.
But senior lawmakers now claim she has no right to
sit in parliament.
Sebahat Tuncel was taken into custody last November,
accused of belonging to a militant group linked to
the PKK.
A high-profile Kurdish activist, she stood for
election from prison and won - with 90,000 votes.
So on Tuesday she was granted immunity from
prosecution, released and greeted by hundreds of
supporters.
But now her political future, and her freedom, are
in doubt.
Scandal claim |
Sebahat Tuncel's political future is in doubt.
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 |
An influential senior lawyer has called her release
a serious legal error.
He claims anyone accused of a crime against the
unity of the state cannot be eligible for immunity.
An amended ruling from the court appears to agree,
leaving the door open for the trial to continue.
A lawyer for the prisoner-turned-politician calls
that interpretation political, and a scandal.
But it is perhaps a taste of what is to come when
almost two dozen pro-Kurdish politicians take their
seats in the new Turkish parliament on Tuesday.
After more than two decades of conflict, they call
that an opportunity to press for peace.
But with clashes between the PKK and Turkish troops
claiming lives almost every day, nationalist feeling
is running high.
BBC
** 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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