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Kurdish DTP party leader Nurettin Demirtas
risks 10 years in jail in Turkey
29.3.2008
By staff
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March 29, 2008
ANKARA, -- The leader of Turkey's main
Kurdish party DTP risks up to 10 years in jail on
charges of evading military service with a false
medical report, Anatolia news agency reported
Friday.
Nurettin Demirtas, chairman of the Democratic
Society Party (DTP), will go on trial in mid-April
along with 97 others, including men accused of
obtaining similar reports and doctors who provided
the documents, Anatolia reported.
The indictment said a medical examination had
established that Demirtas was fit for military
service, which is compulsory in Turkey, it said.
The 35-year-old Demirtas, known as a hardliner on
the Kurdish conflict,www.ekurd.net
was
arrested in December,
2007 shortly after he was elected DTP chairman, as
part of a nationwide investigation. |
Nurettin Demirtas, President of the pro-Kurdish DTP
party, the only Kurdish party in Turkey. |
He had earlier served time in jail for belonging to
the Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which has waged a bloody 23-year campaign for
self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.
The DTP itself is currently on trial at the
Constitutional Court for alleged links to the PKK,
listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of
the international community, and faces the risk of
being outlawed. Nurettin Demirtaş, was
elected as a
new party leader at the party’s second general
assembly in November 2007. From November last year,www.ekurd.net
the Turkish authorities
seek to ban the
only pro-Kurdish DTP party, the DTP demanded
more rights for the Kurdish
minority and autonomy for the Kurds living in the
mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
Since 1984 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. Turkey is home to some 20 million ethnic
Kurds.
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, the party also demanded
an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
The PKK is considered a "terrorist" organization by
Ankara, U.S. and the EU.
Information for this report was provided by AFP | AP
| 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 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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