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Thousands of Kurds protest to support
jailed Abdullah Ocalan in Strasbourg
14.2.2011 |
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February 14, 2011
STRASBOURG, France,— Thousands of Kurds
on Saturday demonstrated in Strasbourg against the
imprisonment of banned Kurdistan Worker's Party
leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Police estimated that around 15,000 Kurds
participated in the demonstration. More than 40,000
Kurds from several European countries have called
for a medical examination of the former PKK party
leader, serving a life sentence on Imrali, in the
Marara Sea off Istanbul.
Demonstrators from Germany, France, Switzerland,
Italy and Austria expressed their solidarity with 18
Kurds who have been on a hunger strike in Strasbourg
for 32 days.
They want an enquiry by the anti-torture committee
of the Council of Europe and in independent medical
investigation of Ocalan, who was arrested in 1999.
The Kurds fear their former leader has been
poisoned, which Turkish authorities deny.
Following his capture, a Turkish court sentenced
Ocalan to death for separatist activities and the
civil war in the southeast of the country.
The sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
In 2005 the European Court of Justice ruled that the
case against Ocalan as unfair because the rights of
the defence had been ignored and recommended new
legal proceedings.
Ocalan, is the founder of the outlawed Turkey Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
which took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey
(Turkey-Kurdistan). Ocalan had been forced from his long-time home in Syria by
Turkish pressure in 1998,www.ekurd.netembarked on an odyssey through several European
countries and ended up in the residence of the Greek ambassador in Nairobi. He
was on his way from there to the airport on Feb 15 1999 when he was arrested by
Turkish agents and put on a plane to Turkey.
Following the arrest, violent protests by Kurds erupted all over Europe. Ocalan
was put on trial on the heavily guarded prison island of Imrali in the Sea of
Marmara near Istanbul and sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to
life in prison,www.ekurd.net
after Turkey abolished the death penalty in
2002. Ocalan was the only prisoner for a decade until new prisoners arrived on
November 2009, |

People hold flags and banners during a demonstration
of several thousand people from all around Europe
asking for convicted PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan's
liberation in Strasbourg, eastern France, on
February 12, 2011. Thousands of demonstrators
protested in support of Ocalan, who was captured on
February 15, 1999, and is currently serving a life
sentence in Turkey. Photo: Getty Images.

Demonstrators take part in a protest in favour of
jailed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader
Abdullah Ocalan in Strasbourg. February 12,
2011 Thousands of demonstrators protested in support
of Ocalan, who was captured on February 15, 1999,
and is currently serving a life sentence in Turkey.
Photo: Reuters |
after the Council of
Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) criticised Ankara for violating
Ocalan's human rights by keeping him in solitary
confinement. He is allowed only visits from
close relatives and his lawyers.
“Ocalan has a high symbolic value for some Kurds,” experts say.
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.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey,
numbering more than 20 million.
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,www.ekurd.netreducing pressure on the detained PKK
president, stopping military action against the
Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish
constitution.
PKK demanded to stop military and political
operations and to release Kurdish politicians who
are unjustly detained. The organization also
requested to enable imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah
Öcalan's active participation in the process.
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.
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author or news agency, DPA | ekurd.net |
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