TURKEY-POLITICS: 15-year Jail Terms for pro-Kurdish Deputies

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nadire Mater

ANKARA, Dec 8 1994 (IPS) - Seven pro-Kurdish DEP deputies and an independent deputy received prison sentences ranging from three to 15 years in a Turkish court in Ankara on Thursday.

It took the Ankara State Security Court two hours to find the defendents guilty of “individually assisting and being affiliated with an armed organisation”.

The deputies were prosecuted under Articles 168 and 169 of the Turkish Penal Code which implies that they were members of an armed organisation but does not carry the death sentence. The DEP (Democracy Trial) began initially in August.

DEP chairman Hatip Dicle from Diyarbakir, former chair Ahmet Turk from Mardin, woman deputy Leyla Zana from Diyarbakir, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak from Sirnak were altogether condemned to 15 years for “being affiliated with an armed organisation”.

DEP Diyarbakir deputy Sedat Yurttas, the judges decided, had circulated Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) propaganda in Turkey and abroad — and called upon the people to demonstrate against the government. He was sentenced to seven and a half years.

DEP deputies Sirri Sakik and independent Mahmut Alinak were found guilty of distributing ‘separatist propaganda’ in the country and abroad. They were sentenced to three and half years. In the case of the last two their verdict will need to be endorsed by the Turkish High Court of Appeal.

In evidence the court noted the pro-Kurdish deputies refusal to take parliamentary oath during the inaugural ceremony in the parliament; their abstention from singing Turkish national anthem at the party congresses and their refusal to display the statue of Turkey’s founding father Kemal Ataturk.

They also took into consideration their Kurdish separatist activities, riots, propaganda against Turkey at home and abroad.

“This was a completely political decision,” said lawyer Yusuf Alatas, after the conclusion of the trial.

“A deputy can never be a simple member of an armed organisation. And there is no evidence in that direction. I have lost my faith in the judiciary. They refused all demands for further investigation. This is practical proof of their unwillingness to hold a genuine trial,” Alatas claimed.

“If we are to admit the court decision that an armed gang was formed within the parliament, then the parliament itself is illegal. The parliament speaker is to protest against this decision,” said lawyer Hasip Kaplan.