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Turkey: Newspaper editor held for referring to
"northern Kurdistan"
20.8.2007 |
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August
20, 2007
Reporters Without Borders called on Sunday for the
immediately release of Yasin Yetisgen, the owner and
editor of the Kurdish newspaper Coban Atesi, who was
detained by a police court on 14 August in Gaziantep
(in southeastern Anatolia) for publishing an article
that said Gaziantep was located in “northern
Kurdistan.”
“As the crime of ‘separatist propaganda’ in article
8 of the anti-terrorism law was repealed in July
2003, it seems utterly archaic to detain Yetisgen
before prosecuting him on a charge of ‘attacking the
country’s integrity and the state’s unity’,” the
press freedom organisation said.
The offending article appeared in the 2 August issue
of Coban Atesi, a local newspaper. A warrant has
been issued for the arrest of the article’s author,
Hursit Kasikkirmaz, who lives abroad. Yetisgen’s
lawyer has filed an appeal against his detention.
The European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey
in 2004 for convicting publisher Ayse Nur Zarakolu
for publishing a book about the murder of journalist
Ferhat Tepe. The court ruled that the use of the
term “Kurdistan” could not in itself be grounds for
restricting free expression.
rsf org
* Northern Kurdistan: Southeastern 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.
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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