DATE=3/28/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=TURKEY / RIGHTS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260675
BYLINE=AMBERIN ZAMAN
DATELINE=ANKARA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: One of Turkey's most prominent human-rights
defenders has returned to prison to finish his
punishment for calling for a peaceful solution to the
Kurdish conflict in Turkey. Amberin Zaman reports
from Ankara that Akin Birdal has six-months remaining
of a sentence he received last year.
TEXT: Akin Birdal was seen off by scores of
journalists, human rights advocates, and well wishers
as he entered Ankara's Merkez prison for the second
time within a year.
Just days before, he had been warmly greeted by
Turkish President Suleyman Demirel at a public
gathering, in yet another example of the
contradictions characterizing Turkey's intricate
political landscape.
Mr. Birdal was sentenced to nine-months in prison
under Article-312 of the Turkish penal code. He was
charged with inciting hatred and enmity based on
racial and religious discrimination.
Earlier this month, Necmettin Erbakan, the founder of
Turkey's Islamic movement and a former prime minister,
was banned from politics for life under the same
article for suggesting that Kurdish school children
were just that -- Kurdish. The 75-year-old Mr.
Erbakan will spend a year in jail if an appeals court
upholds the verdict.
Analysts say Mr. Birdal's imprisonment will likely
spark a fresh round of protests from European
governments. It is also seen as another blow to
Turkey's efforts to begin negotiations for full
membership talks with the European Union.
Mr. Birdal had been released from prison last year for
health reasons. He was hoping to extend the six-month
reprieve after an Ankara hospital certified that he
was unfit to return to jail. An Istanbul forensic
medicine institute overruled that decision.
Mr. Birdal is a former chairman of Turkey's Human
Rights Association. He nearly died in May 1998 during
an attack by ultra-nationalist gunmen with alleged
links to some officials within Turkey's security
apparatus. (SIGNED)
NEB/AZ/GE/RAE
28-Mar-2000 08:21 AM EDT (28-Mar-2000 1321 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
