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06/09/2004
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Turkish Court Frees Pro-Kurdish Lawmakers 2) Turkish Police Raid Pro-Kurdish Media, Detain 23 3) Turkey's Kurds Welcome Broadcasts in Kurdish, with Broken Hearts 4) French Armenians Call on Chirac to Take Stance 5) Zepure Shant Dies 1) Turkish Court Frees Pro-Kurdish Lawmakers ANKARA (Reuters)--Turkey's appeals court ordered the release of former Nobel peace prize nominee Leyla Zana and three other Kurdish former lawmakers on Wednesday in a landmark decision certain to please the European Union it seeks to join. The ruling, freeing them pending appeal, coincided with historic first Kurdish-language broadcasts on state television, and the start of an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights on the fate of jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan. "Turkey's 80-year ban on the Kurds is over today," Sirri Sakik, another former pro-Kurdish lawmaker, told Reuters outside Ankara's Ulucanlar prison as supporters waited for the four to walk free. "It shows Turkey recognizes the Kurdish reality." Turkish financial markets bounced on news the four would be freed, seeing it as highlighting improved human rights and promoting a drive for EU membership. Zana, campaigning for Kurdish rights, had taken on a great symbolic importance for supporters and those who saw her as threatening Turkish unity. Turkey had denied the very existence of its Kurdish minority for decades, terming them "mountain Turks." Courts came down hard on public expressions of Kurdish identity, especially after the outbreak of armed separatism in 1984. Kurds form an estimated 12 million of Turkey's 70 million population. The EU and international human rights groups consider Zana, Hatip Dicle, Selim Sadak, and Orhan Dogan prisoners of conscience. They were jailed in 1994 after being stripped of their parliamentary mandates and convicted of maintaining ties to Kurdish separatist guerrillas. "Their verdict has not been overturned. But taking into account their long imprisonment, a decision was made for their release pending the end of the investigation," a court official told Reuters. The 1994 conviction was upheld by a state security court in April after a retrial ordered by the European Court of Human Rights, which said Zana and the others were denied a fair trial. April's ruling brought sharp criticism from the EU. The Ankara government is working flat-out on political and human rights reforms and hoping to wind a firm start date for accession talks when EU leaders meet in December. A state prosecutor called this week for the annulment of their sentences, and the court official said an appeal court would start hearing the case from July 8. "This will make things easier for us politically, both domestically and abroad," Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said. "The Turkish justice system did what it needed to do." Cicek told reporters the court had correctly interpreted recent legal reforms aimed at meeting EU criteria. The government last month abolished the controversial state security courts under which the four were tried, and is working to set up new civilian structures to replace them. 2) Turkish Police Raid Pro-Kurdish Media, Detain 23 ISTANBUL (AFP)--Anti-terror police raided on Tuesday a pro-Kurdish news agency and two magazines and detained at least 23 employees on suspicion of links with armed Kurdish rebels, Kurdish sources said. Police obtained court permission to search the Istanbul office of the Dicle news agency and said the operation was part of security measures ahead of the NATO summit in the city on June 28-29, the secretary of the agency told AFP by telephone. "They also said that people here are suspected of being linked to the PKK," she said, referring to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, which this month announced the end to a five-year unilateral cease-fire with the government. The pro-Kurdish Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) said police also searched the offices of two small pro-Kurdish monthly magazines, Ozgur Halk and Genc Bakis. They were also suspected of having links with the PKK, DEHAP spokesman Kemal Avci told AFP. DEHAP issued a statement condemning the raids and accusing the government of insincerity in democratization efforts aimed at bringing Turkey closer to the European Union. 3) Turkey's Kurds Welcome Broadcasts in Kurdish, with Broken Hearts YOLBOYU (AFP)--Glued to the television set in a squalid coffee shop, residents of this Kurdish village on Wednesday welcomed the first-ever Kurdish broadcast in Turkey but also voiced resentment that it took so long to come about and only through EU pressure. Haunted by memories of the days when their mother tongue was banned in the country, villagers gathered in the shop ahead of the broadcast on TRT state television, visibly eager and excited. As the presenter announced the beginning of the taboo-breaking program in Kurmanci, the most widespread Kurdish dialect in Turkey, complete silence fell and the crowd watched the 30-minute program attentively. "This is what we have been waiting for since the 1970s. It has finally come true," said 32-year-old worker Abdurrahman Demir, referring to the period when Kurds first raised their demands for cultural rights. "My mother is old. She does not speak Turkish. Now she will also be able to understand," exclaimed Selahattin Cimen, 37. Turkey launched daily television and radio broadcasts in non-Turkish languages on Monday, under pressure from the European Union, which will decide in December whether the country is ready to start accession talks. The program, called "Our Cultural Riches," started with news and continued with a bizarre mix of Kurdish music and brief documentaries on nature, the development of civilization, and technology. In a sign of the haste with which the program was put together, the "news" material was taped earlier in the week. "Even though the content was poor, even though it was short, even though it was undertaken because of EU pressure, we are still happy to watch a broadcast in our own language on our national television," Demir said. Worker Zeki Karakas added: "We are both happy and sad. We are happy to watch television in our mother tongue and we are sad because we wished that those programs had started not because the EU wanted them, but because we wanted them." For years, Ankara had rejected Kurdish demands for cultural freedoms, fearing that such rights could fuel nationalist sentiment among the minority and constitute a reward for Kurdish rebels waging a bloody campaign for self-rule in the country's southeast. Several Kurdish channels, broadcasting either from Europe or the Kurdish enclave in neighboring northern Iraq, are already widely watched in Turkey's southeast, where satellite dishes have become an inseparable part of the landscape. Also as part of EU-sought reforms, private courses began teaching the Kurdish language earlier this year. The restive region has enjoyed a period of relative calm since 1999 when the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced an end to its 15-year armed campaign and the government loosened its grip on locals. But the PKK, now known as KONGRA-GEL, said last week that it was ending the unilateral truce as of June 1, raising fears of renewed bloodshed in the area. The Kurdish conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives, most of them rebels. 4) French Armenians Call on Chirac to Take Stance PARIS (Yerkir)--A public rally will take place in Paris on June 12, demanding that French President Jacques Chirac take a final stance on Turkey's European Union membership. Organized by the Hai Tahd Committee of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation of France, the gathering will take place around the monument to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, which includes a statue of Gomidas Vartabed, erected in April 2003 in a park between the Armenian Cathedral on Jean-Goujon, and Champs Elysee, near the Seine River. French Armenians are appealing to the French government to honor the 1987 and 2004 resolutions of the European Parliament, stipulating that before starting accession talks on its EU membership, Turkey withdraw its troops from northern Cyprus invaded in 1974, release political prisoners, guarantee rights of Kurdish and religious minorities, recognize the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, and lift the blockade of Armenia imposed in 1991. 5) Zepure Shant Dies Folllowing a lengthy illness, Zepure Shant, one of the founding members of the Hamazkayin Kaspar Ipegian theatrical group died in Glendale, California on Monday, June 7. She was 92. Born in the European Turkish town of Rodosto, Shant eventually moved to Lebanon. In 1941, during the formation of the Kaspar Ipegian theatrical group, she actively participated, taking on both major and smaller roles in almost all performances. Besides her love for the theater, Shant's fondness for singing landed her in the Parsegh Ganachian Kousan choir. She was married to Levon Shant's son Souren. They had one child, Levon. Throughout the years, Zepure Shant maintained a profound connection to the Kaspar Ipegian theatrical group, with the sole objective of serving Armenian theater. With the outbreak of Lebanon's civil war, she settled in Los Angeles, and continued to support Armenian theater, specifically collaborating with director Jean Nshanian. Funeral services for Zepure Shant will take place on Friday, June 11, 11 AM at St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church in Glendale, California. Burial services will be conducted at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Cemetery. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2004 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. 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