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Reports From Iraq > Fri., Feb. 20, 2004
Pacifica Reports From Iraq
Kurdish Leader Won't Be Free
Photo: Kurds Rally Outside the Turkey's State Security
Court in Ankara. Inside the court decided to keep celebrated
Kurdish politician Leyla Zana in prison. |
The Bush Administration likes to think its allies in the Middle
East are democratic. Asked today by Fox News if there "was
ever a Muslim country that respects minorities" Rumsfeld
replied "you need look no further than Turkey for a Muslim
country that has a democratic system, a system that's respectful
of people in the country of differing religions and differing
views."
But Turkey is a country with major human rights problems
-- problems so bad Amnesty International last week reported
regular incidents "of detainees being beaten, stripped
naked, sexually harassed, subjected to repeated verbal intimidation,
including death threats, sometimes accompanied by mock executions,
and being subjected to restriction of sleep, food, drink and
use of the toilet."
Problems in Turkey remain most acute for Kurds -- the same
group Rumsfeld and President Bush told Americans they were
helping when they invaded Iraq.
Now, it seems, Turkey's most celebrated political prisoner
will remain behind bars for at least another month At a hearing
in the capital Ankara today Turkey's State Security Court
opted to continue the retrial of jailed Kurdish politician
Leyla Zana and 3 other former members of the Turkish Parliament.
When Zana and her colleagues were elected in 1994, it was
the first time in the history of Turkey that members of a
Kurdish Party had been elected to Parliament. But when they
tried to take the oath of office in Kurdish to call attention
to the fact that the Kurdish language is banned in Turkey
the Parliament was surrounded by police and after three days
of passive resistance– Zana and her colleagues were
arrested. Now they are getting a new trial but few oberservers
are optimistic.
Canadian film-maker Jiya Gol spoke with Zanas family before
court opened this morning: "Most of them are pessimistic,"
he says, "Before the court hearing they said she wouldn't
be released and now exactly what happened is what they said."
It's a shame, he says. "I don't see any Parliamentarian
in prison in any other country for what they say or what they
do."
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Meantime, the Turkish government continues to work hard internationally
to prevent a Kurdish state -- or even a federal government
structure in Iraq. In Washington to meet with George Bush
late last month, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said he would oppose "Kurdish autonomy even if it was
in Argentina."
Faruk Bal of the Nationalist MHP Party tells Pacifica Turkey
"is a big powerful country that needs to be accepted
with its bigness and powerfulness." Such powerfulness
apparently means banning children's radio and television programming
if its in Kurdish.
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