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Japan says giving residency to Turkish
Kurd's family
25.3.2008
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March 25, 2008
TOKYO, -- Japan said Tuesday it was giving
residency to a Turkish Kurd, his Filipina wife and
their daughter in a rare move by a country that
accepts few refugees or immigrants.
The justice ministry agreed to grant the family
residency rights for one year after judges rejected
their plea against deportation but urged
out-of-court negotiations.
"Due to humanitarian considerations, we will begin
procedures to issue special residency status,"
Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama told reporters. "The
status is for one year for now but they can extend
it."
The family -- the 32-year-old Kurdish man of Turkish
nationality, his 41-year-old Filipina wife and their
seven-year-old daughter -- were ordered deported in
2004. Their names were not released.
The man said he feared "persecution" in Turkey
because he skipped mandatory military service.
Activists of Turkey's Kurdish minority have long
sought greater cultural autonomy.
Japan, which has strict controls on immigration,www.ekurd.net
has faced criticism from
human rights groups that it accepts few refugees
despite championing programmes to help refugees
overseas.
Japan in 2006 accepted only 34 political refugees
out of 954 applications. More than 80 percent of
those accepted were from Myanmar.
In 2005, Japan came under fire for deporting to
Turkey two members of a Kurdish family even after
the United Nations had recognised them as refugees.
AFP
** 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 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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