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Turkey: Final hearing for 56 Kurdish DTP
mayors next week
10.4.2008
By ekurd.net staff
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April
10, 2008
ISTANBUL, -- The fifth Diyarbakir Court for
Serious Crimes is expected to pass final judgment
April 15 in the case against 56 mayors accused of
aiding and abetting Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebel
group.
The mayors, mostly from the pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP), are accused of supporting
Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebels in 2006 after
writing a letter to Danish
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen
asking him to keep Kurdish ROJ TV, which is banned
in Turkey, on the air in Denmark.
In the letter, written in December 2005, they
expressed their concerns regarding the proposed
banning of Roj TV on the grounds that such a move
would violate cultural rights and the right to
freedom of expression.
Turkey argues the station is a propaganda machine
for the Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
PKK members often join the station's broadcasts by
satellite telephone from their mountain hideouts in
Iraqi Kurdistan Iraq and the station broadcasts
images of PKK members undergoing training, or
carrying out attacks on Turkish soldiers.
In March 2007, high-level Danish politicians have
rallied together in support of 53 Kurdish mayors.
33 Danish mayors and deputy
mayors have sent a letter to Recep Tayyip
Erdogan,www.ekurd.net
the Turkish prime minister, requesting that
the case against the Kurdish politicians be dropped.
'The mayors are being charged with terrorist
activities because they sent an open letter to the
Danish prime minister,' said Klaus Bondam, deputy
mayor for technical and environmental affairs. 'The
only thing they have done is use their freedom of
speech and now they
risk up to 15 years
imprisonment.'
Bondam called the case 'completely absurd' and said
it was important to send a powerful signal from
Denmark that freedom of expression was something to
be protected.
In June 2006, Denmark’s premier
expressed shock
that 56 Kurdish 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. Fogh
Rasmussen told Danish public radio. “It is shocking
that this can take place in a country which is
seeking EU membership.”
The mayors have denied supporting the PKK. Turkish
authorities launched a case against the mayors on
the charge of “deliberately aiding and abetting an
illegal organization and membership in the
organization" under Articles 220/7 and 314/2-3 of
the Turkish penal code.
While the mayors face seven to 15 years
imprisonment,www.ekurd.net
the prosecutor last
month requested a lesser charge of "praising a crime
and criminal" and prison sentences of two years.
The mayors are expected to reject the lesser charge,
according to one of their defense lawyers, Muharrem
Elbey, because, while they supported the Kurdish
language TV station, they “never praised its
contents.”
The prosecutor also asked that all charges be
dropped against three of the mayors on trial.
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.
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., the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel
group PKK and its political wing on
the European Union's terror list.
Information for this report was provided by ,
turkishdailynews com.tr | 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 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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