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Turkey: Kurdish Roj TV letter trial waits
for Danish answer 12.9.2007 |
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A trial concerning the letter that 56 Kurdish mayors
sent to Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen will
continue after response from Denmark.
September 12, 2007
Turkey, -- On 30 December 2005,
56 Kurdish mayors had sent
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen a letter
in which they asked for the Kurdish Roj TV channel
to remain open. 54 of the mayors were of the
pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and two
of the Social Democratic People's Party (SHP).
Prison sentences demanded
The Kurdish mayors are
now on trial
for "knowingly and willingly helping a terrorist
organisation", or more precisely, for "helping the
organisation by preventing the taking away of a
visual propaganda medium of the terrorist
organisation". The prosecution is asking for
sentences of between 7.5 and
15 years for 53 mayors.
Three mayors have been acquitted.
In 2006 Denmark’s premier
expressed shock that 56 mayors in
Turkey were under investigation for urging him to
resist pressure from Ankara to close down an
allegedly pro-rebel Kurdish TV station in the
Scandinavian country
The defendants are being tried under Articles 314/3
and 220/7 of the Turkish Penal Code.
Indictment: Roj TV threatens Turkey
The investigation into the letter was initiated by
the Diyarbakir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on 2
January 2006. In the indictment which was prepared
after a six-month investigation, it is said that Roj
TV spreads "propaganda of the organisation".
The indictment also says, "Although the letter
expressed a legal and democratic right, it ignored
the fact that the organisational views of Roj TV
contain broadcasts which threaten Turkey."
Denmark's answer needed
The court case was continued yesterday (11
September) at the Diyarbakir 5th Heavy Penal Court.
In the short hearing, it was decided to ask for the
original answer of the Danish Media Secretariate
concerning the status of Roj TV. The court decided
to write to the Ministry of Justice to ask for
Denmark's answer. The hearing was postponed until 20
November.
The defendants were represented by their lawyers
Muharrem Erbas and Sezgin Tanrikulu at the hearing.
The lawyers argued that the hearing was more like a
trial of Roj TV than of the defendants.
Bianet org
**
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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