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EU's French Helene Flautre “deep concerned”
over Leyla Zana's prison sentence
1.6.2012
By Ekurd.net staff writers |
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EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission co-chair
French Helene Flautre expressed her “deep concern”
over the ten years prison sentence for Zana.
Turkey's prominent outspoken Kurdish rights advocate
Leyla Zana, former Kurdish MP in Turkey Zana spent a
decade behind bars
(between 1994 and 2004)
in Turkey for speaking Kurdish in the Turkish
Parliament after taking her parliamentary oath. She
was the first Kurdish woman to be elected to
Turkey's parliament. Photo: ANF •
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June 1, 2012
BRUSSELS, Belgium, — EU-Turkey Joint
Parliamentary Commission co-chair French Helene
Flautre expressed her “deep concern” over the ten
years prison sentence for Turkey's prominent
outspoken Kurdish rights advocate and MP Leyla Zana, Firat news agency ANF
reported.
Reminding of Zana’s imprisonment in 1994 because of
the statements she made, Helene Flautre, member of
the European Parliament for the French Green Party,
evaluated the sentence as a blow against the freedom
of expression in Turkey.
“This sentence proves the fact that the freedom of
expression in Turkey is under the threat of courts
and the penal code, I urge the Turkish government
and parliament to make a reform in the anti-terror
law, to revoke all sentences imposed on Zana and to
take necessary legal measures with an aim to secure
basic freedoms and to ensure a real freedom of
thought.”, said Flautre.
One other reaction against Zana’s prison sentence
was voiced by the Movement Against Racism and for
Friendship between Peoples (MRAP) which evaluated
the sentence as a part of the political repression
against the Kurdish people.
MRAP called attention to the arrest of thousands of
Kurds including elected representatives, lawyers,
journalists, women and children and called on the
French government and the European Parliament to
intervene in the process for the release of Kurdish
and Turkish political prisoners.
Leyla Zana was sentenced to 15 months in prison on
July 28, 2009 for remarks upholding Kurdish PKK
rebels fighting the Turkish government. On December
4, 2008 sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for
praising PKK
Zana, who in 1995 won the European Parliament's
Sakharov human rights award, and several other Kurds
were elected to parliament in 1991,www.ekurd.net
but lost their
seats in 1994 after their party was outlawed for
links with the PKK. Zana and three colleagues spent
10 years behind bars for collaborating with the
rebels. They were released in June 2004.
Zana and her colleagues were first sentenced to 15
years in jail in 1994 for membership of the Turkey's
outlawed PKK. In March 2003, Zana and her
co-defendants were allowed a retrial after their
original conviction was condemned as unfair by the
European Court of Human Rights in 2001. She was
released in 2004 after Turkey's appeals court
overturned her conviction.
Leyla Zana, the symbol of peaceful strife of the
Kurdish people, was granted the Italian honorary
nationality in Rome on October 23, 2008.
- More than 13 years' imprisonment within two years
Zana received a two-year prison sentence from the
Diyarbakir 6th High Criminal Court on the grounds of
a speech made at the Newroz celebrations in 2007
(traditional Kurdish festival to mark the beginning
of the Iranian New Year and the arrival of spring).
She was sentenced for saying "The three leaders of
the Kurds Jalal Talabani, Massoud Barzani and
Abdullah Öcalan".
Zana stood trial once more under charges of
"praising crime and criminals" based on her defence
in the case mentioned above. The Diyarbakır 6th High
Criminal Court acquitted the politician.
Former DEP MP Zana received a prison sentence of one
year and three months based on a speech she had
given at a seminar held by the School of Oriental
and African Studies in London on 24 May 2008. Zana
was convicted of "propaganda for an illegal
organization". In her speech, she had likened the PKK and its imprisoned leader
Abdullah Öcalan's importance to the Kurdish people
to the importance the brain and heart have to
humans. "They have created a new life for the
Kurdish people, so that a people that used to be
ashamed of its existence gained a spirit of freedom
and resistance."
On 4 December 2008, Zana was sentenced to
imprisonment of ten years by the Diyarbakir 5th High
Criminal Court under allegations of "spreading
propaganda for the PKK" in nine different speeches.
The court voiced the opinion that "the defendant's
activities over all reached the dimension of
membership of the PKK/Kongra-Gel terror
organization". The decision included Zana's
deprivation of the right to vote and to be elected
and several other political rights.
The PKK has several times proposed peaceful solutions regarding Kurdish problem,
Turkey has always refused saying that it will not negotiate with “terrorists”.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been
fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the
constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a
Kurdish state in the south east of the country, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000
lives.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous
Kurdish region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey,
numbering more than 20 million. A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees,
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader
Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action against
the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
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 PKK is considered ass 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara and 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.
Sources: firatnews.com | AFP | Reuters | AP | ekurd.net |
ANF | Agencies
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© 2012 ekurd.net
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