March
14, 2010
LONDON, — Around a hundred people
gathered opposite the Turkish Embassy in London on
Friday in a protest demanding that Turkey recognise
its obligations under the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child and the European Convention on
Human Rights (ECHR) and release the fifteen year old
Kurdish girl Berivan Sayaca,
jailed for 8
years for allegedly throwing stones at police
vehicles in a demonstration, and all Kurdish
children currently held in Turkish jails.
The protest was organised by the Free Berivan
Committee and most of those taking part on a damp
Friday afternoon were from the Kurdish community in
London. As well as placards demanding Berivan's
release, some had pictures of Turkish atrocities,
while others waved flags with an image of Abdullah
Ocalan, held in solitary confinement on a Turkish
island since 1999, and recognised by many Kurds as
the leader of the Kurdish people.
Turkey has over the years been the worst violator of
the 47 states that have signed the ECHR, responsible
for roughly one fifth of all violations. In 2009
there were 347 negative rulings against Turkey, 21%
of the total, most commonly for violating the right
to a fair trial, although there were 30
condemnations for inhumane or degrading treatment.
Kurds are treated as second-class citizens in
Turkey, and suffer disproportionately from injustice
and abuse. Berivan was detained at a rally in
support of the banned Turkey Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) last October in Batman, a city in
southeast Turkey.
Berivan denies throwing stones and has stated she
was not a part of the demonstration but had simply
stopped to watch on her way to visit her aunt. She
is reported as saying "When they arrested me they
beat me up a lot. I don't understand why they
treated me like this. I am very upset here, I am in
pain here" and she confessed to the crimes of
throwing stones, attending the unlawful meeting and
spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation
only after these beatings.
She was tried under anti-terror legislation
introduced in 2006, which allows courts to try
juveniles as adults and pass sentences up to 50
years. Here original sentence of 13 1/2 years was
reduced on appeal to 7 years 9 months because of her
age. She is just one of 737 minors who have been
charged under these anti-terror laws, and just one
of 2,622 children currently held in Turkish jails.
There are thought to be roughly 5 million Kurds
living in each of Turkey, Iraq and Iran, and about
1.6 million in Syria,www.ekurd.netwith
around 1.3 million now living in Western Europe,
with significant populations in North London and
also in Dewsbury.
Co-incidentally at the same time as this
demonstration was taking place outside the Turkish
Embassy, there were another group of just over 30
Kurds only a couple of hundred yards away on another
side of Belgrave Square holding a protest outside
the Syrian Embassy.
They were commemorating the start of the 'Qamlishi
Uprising’, (also known as the Western Kurdistan
Uprising,) which began during a football match in
that city in northern Syria where supporters waved
Kurdish flags on 12 March 2004 and spread to other
Kurdish towns close to the Turkish border as well as
Damascus and Aleppo which also have significant
Kurdish populations. |
Kurds in London Demand Release of Girl in Turkish
Jail
Protest ahead of the Turkish Embassy
Kurds with flag of the Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah
Ocalan in London Demand Release of Girl in Turkish
Jail
Photos: demotix com |
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