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KNC-NA calls for revoking prison sentences
of Kurdish leaders in Turkey
17.4.2008
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April
17, 2008
Lake Forest, CA, — Kurdish National Congress
of North America, April 16, 2008: On April 10, 2008,
Mrs. Leyla Zana, a former MP for the Turkish
government, and a recipient of the Rafto Prize in
1994, and the Sakharov Prize in 1995, was
sentenced to
two years imprisonment for violating article 7/2 of
a 1991 anti-terrorism law which prohibits “those who
make propaganda in connection with such (terrorist)
organizations.”
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Kurdish National Congress of North America |
The “propaganda” of which Mrs. Zana is accused
occurred in a speech she gave in the Kurdish city of
Diyarbakir , during a celebration of the Kurdish New
Year holiday of Newroz. In
her speech, she
referred to “three leaders” of the Kurds including
Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani of Kurdistan-Iraq
and Abdullah Öcalan,www.ekurd.net
the imprisoned leader of
the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey . Her
mention of Öcalan is construed as supporting
terrorist organizations.
This will be Zana’s second imprisonment for speaking
out on behalf of Kurdish causes. In 1991, soon after
she was elected as a MP to the Turkish Parliament,
her parliamentary immunity was stripped away after
she recited her oath of office in both the Kurdish
and Turkish languages. Under the Turkish
Constitution, speaking Kurdish, her native language,
Parliament was taboo. At the time, she was accused
of “insulting Turkish honor” and she was sentenced
to 15 years imprisonment. She spent approximately 10
years of that sentence behind bars prior to her
release in 2004.
On April 15, 2008 Turkey also
sentenced 53 Kurdish mayors
to more than two months imprisonment. The mayors had
sent a letter
to the Danish Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen in
December 2005 and called on Denmark to resist the
pressure from Turkey and not close down the Kurdish
satellite television station, Roj TV.
We call on Turkey to revoke Mrs. Zana’s and the
mayors’ recent sentencing, and put an end to the
socio-political plague that has prevented Turkey
from being a democratically functional state by
amending its constitution,www.ekurd.net
where the Kurds and
Turks can live together in peace. We encourage the
Turkish authorities to see that the exclusionary
policies of the past are not the path to a bright
future. We also urge the U. S. , European and other
democratic nations, and non-governmental
organizations to urge Turkey to release itself from
the cycle of “hate and fear” and find a viable way
to resolve the Kurdish “issue” with a political
frame of reference.
Public Relations Committee
Kurdish National Congress of North America
P.O. Box 1663, Lake Forest, CA 92609 USA, Tel/Fax:
1-949-583-1417
P.O. Box 545, Millersville, MD 21108 USA
www.kncna.org
** 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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