June
30, 2007
VAN, Kurdish Southeastern region of Turkey,
-- Prominent Turkish Kurd politician
Orhan Dogan died Friday in hospital in the eastern
Kurdish city of Van after suffering a heart attack
at the weekend, doctors said.
The 55-year-old was among several Kurdish activists
who entered the Turkish parliament in 1991,
including human rights award winner Leyla Zana. They
lost their seats three years later for supporting
armed Kurdish rebels fighting the government.
Dogan, Zana and two others spent 10 years in jail
for collaborating with the rebels before being
released in June 2004.
Dogan had put forward his candidacy to run again in
general elections on July 22, but electoral
authorities said he was no longer eligible because
of his conviction.
He suffered cardiac arrest while making a speech at
a festival in the eastern town of Dogubeyazit on
Sunday.
AFP
** The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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Orhan Dogan, Kurdish activists and former MPs, in
Turkey
Kurdish activist and former MP Leyla Zana (2nd-L)
and Kurdish activists and former MPs, Orhan Dogan
(L)
Kurdish activist and
former MP Leyla Zana (2nd-L) and Kurdish
activists and former MPs, Orhan Dogan (2nd-R) |