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Kurdish mayor under probe in Turkey over
'war' remarks
4.9.2007 |
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September 4, 2007
ANKARA, -- A Turkish prosecutor on Tuesday
launched a probe against a Kurdish mayor who
reportedly accused the government of discriminating
against his administration and said he was ready for
"war", Anatolia news agency reported.
The investigation could result in official charges
against Osman Baydemir, mayor of Diyarbakir, the
largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast,
the report said. Baydemir one of Turkey's most
popular Kurdish politicians and the mayor of
Diyarbakir,
The probe was launched a day after Baydemir accused
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) of not giving
financial support to his projects because he was a
member of the main Kurdish party in the country, the
Democratic Society Party (DTP).
"The city has been discriminated against because its
mayor is from the DTP," Baydemir was quoted by the
Turkish media as saying.
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Osman Baydemir, one of Turkey's most popular Kurdish
politicians and the mayor of Diyarbakir, the main
city in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey. |
"If the prime minister and his ministers are
declaring war on Diyarbakir, I say 'let us have it'.
We are not scared of fighting," he reportedly said.
The DTP is frequently accused of supporting
separatist Kurdish rebels waging a bloody campaign
since 1984 for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's
southeast that has cost more than 37,000 lives.
Several of its members have been prosecuted for
links with the group.
In a speech on Tuesday at the weekly meeting of the
AKP parliamentary group, Erdogan categorically
rejected accusations that his government favoured
local administrations run by the AKP over those run
by other parties.
"Local administrators should generate employment,
projects and services rather than empty words,"
Erdogan said.
Turkey's Kurdish community mainly votes DTP and has
given the party scores of local administrations in
the impoverished southeast and east of the country.
AFP
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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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