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Kurdish mayor jailed in Turkey for
praising PKK rebel leader Ocalan
14.2.2008
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February 14, 2008
DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of
Turkey, -- A Kurdish mayor in southeastern Turkey
was sentenced to 10 months in prison Thursday for
praising jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The court in Diyarbakir sentenced Huseyin Kalkan,
the mayor of nearby Batman and member of Turkey's
main Kurdish DTP party, under a provision that penalises
helping terrorist groups and spreading their
propaganda.
Ocalan is the leader of the Turkey's separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a
'terrorist' organisation by Ankara, USA and EU. He
has been serving a life sentence for treason since
1999. |
Huseyin Kalkan the mayor of nearby Batman. |
The charges against Kalkan stemmed from a 2006
interview with the Los Angeles Times in which he
described Ocalan as the leader of the Kurdish
people,www.ekurd.net
argued that the PKK was
not a terrorist group and that its members should be
allowed to do politics.
Kalkan's lawyers argued that their client used his
democratic right to express his opinions and said
they would appeal the sentence.
Kalkan's Democratic Society Party (DTP) itself is
under the risk of being banned for alleged links
with the PKK in a case at the Constitutional Court.
The DTP, which holds 20 seats in the 550-member
parliament, rejects the accusations, but its members
have often come under fire for refusing to brand the
PKK a terrorist group and for voicing sympathy for
the rebels.
Over 39,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the PKK
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish
PKK rebels.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas,www.ekurd.net
the party also demanded an
end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
AFP | 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, a
large Turkey's Kurdish community 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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