DATE=2/26/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=TURKEY/KURDS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-259599
BYLINE=AMBERIN ZAMAN
DATELINE=ANKARA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Lawyers for three Kurdish mayors arrested for
their alleged links with the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers Party, or P-K-K, say their clients deny all
the charges. As Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara,
four mayors from the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy
Party were suspended from their duties Friday and are
being held at a maximum security prison in the largely
Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.
TEXT: In comments published in the pro-Kurdish
newspaper, Ozgur Bakis, Mayor Feridun Celik of
Diyarbakir, who was suspended from his duties together
with the mayors of neighboring Agri, Bingol and Siirt
over alleged links with the P-K-K, denied charges he
had met with a senior P-K-K military commander in
Europe.
Mr. Celik said he was blindfolded during four days of
interrogation at police headquarters in Diyarbakir and
subjected to physical harassment. If convicted, the
mayors could face more than four years in jail.
The arrests have provoked strong protests from
European governments. And western diplomats in the
capital, Ankara, acknowledge that the crackdown on
leaders of the pro-Kurdish group known as Hadep does
not help Turkey's efforts to join the European Union.
On Friday, Hadep leader Ahmet Turan Demir told a news
conference the P-K-K should be allowed to operate as a
political party now that it has called off its 15-year
armed struggle for an independent Kurdish state carved
out of southeast Turkey.
Demir and at least 12 other Hadep officials, including
the mayor of Agri, were sentenced to nearly four years
in prison by a Turkish court Thursday for staging a
hunger strike in 1998 in support of condemned P-K-K
leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Ocalan was sentenced to death on treason charges by a
Turkish court last year. But the Turkish government
agreed to postpone the execution pending a review by
the European Court in Strasbourg.
Since his arrest over a year ago, Ocalan has sought to
transform his campaign for Kurdish rights into a
political movement.
P-K-K rebels are accused of killing hundreds of
innocent civilians, including women and children,
during their insurgency. Both Turkey and the United
States have labeled the P-K-K a "terrorist group."
According to Turkish analysts, the crackdown on Hadep
shows the government is not willing to allow
advocacy of Kurdish rights by legitimate political
groups either. Some 37 Kurdish mayors won office on
Hadep's ticket during nationwide elections last year.
The party is facing closure, however, on charges of
acting as a "political front" for the P-K-K.
Party officials deny the charges but make no secret of
their sympathy for Ocalan and his movement. (Signed)
NEB/AZ/ALW/JP
26-Feb-2000 10:01 AM EDT (26-Feb-2000 1501 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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