DATE=6/29/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=TURKEY / KURDS (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263890
BYLINE=AMBERIN ZAMAN
DATELINE=ANKARA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Police in Turkey have arrested nearly 100
people for staging protests against the death sentence
imposed on Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. As
Amberin Zaman reports from Ankara, the demonstrations
were called on the first anniversary of Ocalan's
sentencing.
TEXT: At least two people were wounded in the eastern
city of Van as baton wielding riot police used force
to disperse hundreds of demonstrators gathered to
protest the death sentence handed down on treason
charges to the Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
Similar protests were held across the country.
In Istanbul, police arrested 23 members of Turkey's
largest legal Kurdish party - HADEP - as their
spokesman sought to read a statement condemning
Ocalan's conviction following a month long trial.
Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers
Party, P-K-K, was captured in Kenya last year and
brought to Turkey where he is being held in solitary
confinement on a prison island south of Istanbul.
Turkey has deferred carrying out the death sentence
until the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg
delivers its opinion on Ocalan's verdict.
The European Union - which Turkey wants join as a full
member - has made it clear that Turkey needs to
improve its human rights record and abolish capital
punishment in order to qualify.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has said he is in
favor of ending the death penalty, but his far-right
coalition partners of the National Action Party insist
Ocalan needs to be hanged before the laws are amended.
The Turkish government has rejected Ocalan's calls to
negotiate a peaceful solution to their long-standing
dispute it will never deal with what it calls - a
terrorist.
Meanwhile, Turkish authorities have stepped up
pressure on the legal Kurdish party, HADEP, raiding
its offices in Istanbul and arresting party officials
in connection with a separate demonstration last week.
Nearly 40-thousand people have died since Ocalan's P-
K-K launched its 15-ear long campaign for Kurdish
independence. Ocalan has since scaled down his
demands to cultural autonomy and has called off his
armed fight. He says it is now up to the Turkish
government to seize what he and even his fiercest
detractors hail as a golden opportunity for a lasting
peace. (SIGNED)
NEB/AZ/JWH/ENE/RAE
29-Jun-2000 11:46 AM EDT (29-Jun-2000 1546 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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