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Kurdish Federation in UK: Turkey is
killing PKK-leader
1.12.2009 |
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December 1, 2009
LONDON, — The Kurdish Federation in the UK
(FED-BIR) will hold a meeting called ‘Stop the state
killing of Abdullah Ocalan’ on Wednesday. The pro-PKK
organization will speak about his prison conditions
on Wednesday in the Kurdish community centre in
London.
According to FED-BIR, the Turkey Kurdistan Workers'
Party or PKK believes Turkey has plans to kill the
imprisoned PKK-leader. The PKK says Ocalan’s new
prison cell is far worse. “It is widely believed
that it has been meticulously and purposely designed
to accelerate the death of the leader of the Kurdish
people’s Freedom Movement. Such a death will be
blamed on ‘natural causes’,” declared the Kurdish
organization in a press statement.
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Photo: kurdishcentre org |
Statements of the PKK-leader
suggest that his new prison sell is half of the size
of his old cell and that his air conditioning is
also in a bad state. “Even though the heat from the
sun is so unpleasant,www.ekurd.netthat
I feel like I will get a heat stroke, I am forced to
stay by the open window in order to get oxygen. I
have very severe breathing problems here, " Ocalan
told his lawyers.
FED-BIR says it wants to start actions to bring his
conditions under the attention of the media and to
force the European Council’s CPT (Committee for the
Prevention of Torture) to intervene and ‘stop this
state execution’.
Recently Turkey said it would improve his
conditions, by ending his isolation and sending new
prisoners to his prison cell. Nonetheless, the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) suggests the life of
it’s leader is now threatened. Pro-PKK organizations
also launched petitions for more attention for the
PKK-leader.
The outlawed PKK was founded in 1978 by Abdullah
Ocalan, who was jailed for life for treason and
separatism.
Since 1984 the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey
(Turkey-Kurdistan) which has claimed around 45,000
lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas. A large Turkey's Kurdish community
openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority.
"The Kurdish question cannot be resolved without
recognizing the will of the Kurdish people and
holding dialogue with its interlocutors," the group
said.
The PKK has long called on Ankara to halt military
operations and agree to negotiations for a solution,
which it says should include official recognition of
the country's Kurds in the constitution.
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.
The government categorically rejects dialogue with a
group it labels a terrorist organization and says it
will not let up on the military campaign against the
rebels. 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.
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.
The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has
praised Erdogan's efforts to end the conflict. His
so-called democratic initiative aims to expand
cultural and political liberties to address decades
of grievances from Kurds who say they have faced
state-sanctioned discrimination and violence.
It has gone from seeking full independence for the
Kurdish region to calling for regional autonomy and
better cultural rights for Kurds.
Ankara has recently announced measures aimed at
improving Kurdish rights in the hope of undermining
support for the party.
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respective author or news agency, Rudaw net |
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