June
27, 2011
ISTANBUL, Turkey, — Police heavily
attacked a demonstration promoted in Istanbul by
Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block to protest
against the Election Board decision to strip Hatip
Dicle of his mandate, pro Kurdish ANF news agency
reported.
Protesters, among which were many Block deputies,
have been voicing their protest against the
government of the AKP as well. Thousands have been
joining the demonstration when police attacked the
crowd with tear gas. Deputies Sırrı Süreyya Önder,www.ekurd.netErtuğrul
Kürkçü, Sabahat Tuncel and Levent Tüzel were at the
demonstration in Şişli.
At least 32 people have been detained, while
Istanbul Mp Sebahat Tuncel suffered heavily because
of the pepper gas.
Istanbul deputies taken to
hospital
Istanbul MPs Sebahat Tuncel and Sırrı Süreyya Önder
have been taken to hospital suffering from
respiratory difficulties after police attacked a
demonstration in Istanbul. The police have thrown
tear gas at the crowd protesting against the
Election Board decision to strip Diyarbakir MP Hatip
Dicle of his mandate and against the government.
Turkish authorities stripped a prominent Kurdish
activist
Hatip Dicle of the parliamentary seat he won in the
June 12 polls, citing a terror-related conviction,
news agency reported.
Hatip Dicle 57, currently in jail awaiting trial in a
separate case, had been
expected to be freed
after he was elected to parliament as an independent
candidate from Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city
in the southeast [Turkey Kurdistan].
|
Police attacked demonstration organized to protest
against Election Board decision to exclude Dicle
Demonstrations in SiSli and Taksim heavily attacked
by Turkish police. Photo: ANF, firatnews.com |
|
The Higher Electoral Board however ruled late
Tuesday that Dicle was not eligible to stand in the
elections because of a 20-month jail sentence he had
received under Turkey’s anti-terror law.
Dicle, in prison since 2010 awaiting trial in a
separate case, had been expected to be freed to
assume his seat.
The legal jumble arose from the fact that Dicle's
sentence was upheld just four days before the polls,
when the list of candidates had been confirmed.
His was convicted for a speech deemed "propaganda
for an armed terrorist organisation" -- a reference
to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which
has led a bloody separatist insurgency in the
southeast since 1984.
In 2007
a jailed Kurdish activist
Sebahat Tuncel elected
to Turkey's legislature, who is backed by
pro-Kurdish DTP party was
released to take a seat at Turkish parliament.
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