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Turkish prosecutors launch investigation
into Kurdish DTP party leader
23.10.2008
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October
23, 2008
ANKARA,
Turkey, — Turkish prosecutors on Wednesday launched
an investigation into a speech made by the leader of
the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) in
which he attacked the government's policy regarding
the Kurdish issue,www.ekurd.net
the Anadolu news agency reported.
"The policy of denial, assimilation and eradication
has affected people. Only the Kurds resisted. They
still resist," DTP leader Ahmet Turk told supporters
in the south-eastern main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
The speech came after days of protests in
south-eastern cities where Kurds angry at reports
that Turkey's Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) leader
Abdullah Ocalan had been mistreated in prison have
held running battles with police.
Hundreds of Kurds have been arrested after clashes
in various towns in the pre-dominantly
Kurdish-populated south-east (Turkey Kurdistan).
Turkish authorities have denied that Ocalan,www.ekurd.net
the
sole inmate of a prison on the Marmara Sea island of
Imrali, has suffered any mistreatment, but have
resisted calls from Kurdish leaders such as Turk for
an independent group to visit the PKK leader. |
Ahmet Turk, the leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
DTP in Turkey. |
In
his speech on Tuesday,
Turk said that since the military coup of 1980, the
Kurds had suffered a "cultural and societal
genocide."
The DTP leader also referred to Ocalan with the
title "honourable," a term that prosecutors have
cited in the past to justify charges of "spreading
terrorist propaganda."
PKK founder Ocalan was arrested in 1999 and is
serving a life sentence after being found guilty of
treason.
Over 39,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the
Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly
Kurdish southeast of Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan). A large Turkey's
Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
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.
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.
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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
DPA | AFP | Agencies
** 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.
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.
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 25 million ethnic Kurds, a large
Turkey's Kurdish community 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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