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Turkey's prominent Kurdish politician
Leyla Zana was granted Italian honorary nationality
25.10.2008
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October
25, 2008
ROME,
Italy, — Leyla Zana, a prominent Kurdish politician
and the symbol of peaceful strife of the Kurdish
people,www.ekurd.net
was granted the Italian
honorary nationality in Rome on October the 23rd,
PUKmedia correspondent in Italy reported.
“You have given this nationality to recognize that
you are working in Human Rights,” it is written on
the nationality.
Leyla Zana on October the 20th held a forum entitled
“The right of existence and remaining in the World”
in Italy.
She talked about several topics in the forum
including the importance of women in strife and
their roles in establishing peace and righteousness,
as well as conditions of the Kurdistan of Turkey
(south east of Turkey).
Leyla Zana also held another forum in Rome on
October the 22nd entitled “The human rights and
Kurdistan from parliament to prison”. Many lecturers
and students attended the forum. |
Leyla Zana was granted Italian honorary nationality,
Turkey's outspoken Kurdish rights advocate Leyla
Zana, a f ormer Kurdish MP in Turkey, Zana spent a
decade behind bars 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. |
Zana, 1995 laureate of
the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights
award,www.ekurd.net
and several other Kurds
were elected to parliament in 1991, but lost their
seats three years later after their party was
outlawed for links with the PKK.
Zana and her colleagues were first sentenced to 15
years in jail in 1994 for membership of the Turkey's
outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has
been fighting a 22-year bloody campaign for Kurdish
self-rule in the country's southeast.
The charges were brought two years after Zana, the
first Kurdish woman to be elected to Turkey's
parliament, caused an uproar by first taking the
oath in Turkish and then repeating in Kurdish to the
protest of other legislators.
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.
Since 1984 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,
pukmedia com | Agencies
More
about Kurdish Activist Leyla
Zana
** 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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