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Turkey sentences 15 Kurdish minors to jail
30.4.2010 |
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April
30, 2010
ANKARA, — A
Turkish high criminal court has sentenced 15 Kurd
minors to three to five years in prison on charges
of hurling stones at police officers and chanting
illegal slogans during a protest in the southern
province of Mersin.
The minors, whose ages range between 13 and 17, were
arrested recently for participating in protests
against the imprisonment of the Kurdish leader of
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),www.ekurd.netAbdullah
Ocalan, according to a report published by Hurriyet
newspaper on Thursday.
Turkey has witnessed frequent Kurdish protests since
October. Kurdish demonstrators complain about the
prison conditions of Ocalan, who is serving a life
sentence at the maximum security prison island of
Imrali. |
The photo shows a minor being held at a detention
facility in Turkey. Photo Presstv ir |
The Kurds are also angry
about the closure of the DTP Party in December on
the grounds that it was linked to the PKK.
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.
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.
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.
Last August, the government announced plans to expand
Kurdish freedoms in a bid to erode popular support
for the PKK and end the insurgency.
Although the drive faltered amid a ban on the
country's main Kurdish DTP party, street protests and PKK
violence, Ankara has vowed to push ahead with the
reforms.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency, presstv ir | Agencies
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