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Turkey: Denmark urged to pull plug on
Kurdish ROJ TV channel
25.9.2007 |
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September
25, 2007
New York, -- Turkey has called on Danish
authorities to shut down a Kurdish language
television channel operating from Denmark and which
Ankara accuses of broadcasting separatist propaganda
to Turkey's mainly Kurdish populated southeastern
Anatolia region.
The request was made by Turkish foreign minister Ali
Babacan in his meeting with his Danish counterpart
Per Stig Moller in New York, on the sidelines of a
UN summit on Monday.
The satellite TV channel in question, Roj TV, has
been broadcasting from Denmark for several years.
In the meeting, Babacan stated that Turkey submitted
proof of Roj TV’s separatist line, as requested by
authorities in Copenhagen.
“We have provided this evidence long ago and we now
want you to take action” Babacan said.
Moller said that an investigation was still underway
and asked Turkey to be more patient.
Babacan’s statements came on the same day when the
chief of the Turkish Army, General İlker Basbug
warned against what he said was the rise of ethnic
nationalism in Turkey.
"We will not let the formation of artificial
distinctions and the introduction of these topics
lead the country to polarisation” Basbug said in a
speech in the Army war college
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).
The Kurdish mayors are
now on trial in Turkey
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
He also criticised the United States for what he
said was not acting against separatist Kurdish PKK
militants operating against Turkey from the border
mountains in Kurdistan 'northern Iraq'.
Since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for self-rule
in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds.
adnkronos com | Agencies
**
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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