Saturday, April 3, 2010

Turkey: four Kurdish politicians on trial for speaking Kurdish

free-speech2 by christopher_aquino.

Friday, 02 April 2010

Northern Kurdistan- Hakkari: the Hakkari’s Mayor Fadıl Bedirhanoğlu, former mayor Kazım Kurt and the officials of the banned Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) Fahri Kurt and Rahmi Temel do all stand trial for addressing their electorates in Kurdish language in the run-up to the 2009 local elections.

The Court of First Instance of Hakkari in the Northen Kurdistan tries four Kurdish prominent politicians from the closed Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) on the grounds of having addressed their electorates in Kurdish language in the run-up to the local elections on 29 March 2009.

The DTP was the main Kurdish party in the Turkish parliament having 22 seats and 99 municipalities. The Turkish Court closed DPT to its alleged link with the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK).