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Germany bans Kurdish satellite ROJ TV
25.6.2008
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June
25, 2008
BERLIN, — A Danish-based Kurdish
broadcaster, ROJ TV, has been banned from German
soil because of its support for conflict against
Turkey, interior officials in Berlin said Tuesday.
Roj, which means The Day, has also been stripped of
its broadcasting licence in Germany, although its
satellite transmissions to western Europe can be
picked up by satellite dish as before.
The Interior Ministry said Roj was a mouthpiece of
the Turkey's Kurdish Workers Party PKK, which has
been outlawed in Germany and which has used armed
force in pursuit of autonomy for ethnic Kurdish
regions of Turkey.
Officials said Roj had encouraged viewers to become
guerrillas.
Its production company in Germany, VIKO Fernseh
Produktion GmbH based in the western city of
Wuppertal, was dissolved at the same time as the ban
was issued on June 19.
Roj's parent,www.ekurd.net
Mesopotamia Broadcast A/S, a
Danish-based private broadcasting company, was
prohibited from activity in Germany.
Officials said an inquiry into Roj which began in
September led to a raid on the VIKO offices on May
7.
Ulla Jelpke, an official of Germany's Left Party,
which has been sympathetic to PKK, attacked the ban.
She said Berlin was pouring oil on the flames of the
Turkish- Kurdish conflict by 'gagging' an important
source of news to Kurds. She said millions of people
in Turkey and Europe counted on Roj broadcasts in
Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic and Persian.
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 fighting the Turkish
army. 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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