PROMISES ONE DAY, PROSECUTIONS THE NEXT
July 18, 1997
Washington, D.C. — On July 17, 1997, Mehdi Zana, a renowned Kurdish activist and husband of imprisoned MP Leyla Zana, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for “separatist propaganda.” He was convicted for the contents of a poetry book he authored. His publisher, Aysenur Zarakolu, was also fined by the Istanbul State Security Court.
The conviction comes one day after the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) presented jailed Ozgur Gundem editor Ocak Isik Yurtcu its International Press Freedom Award. Throughout the week, a high-profile CPJ delegation had been assured by Turkish President Demirel, Prime Minister Yilmaz, and other civilian leaders that efforts would be made to release 78 journalists identified as being jailed for speech crimes. International and Turkish human rights groups cite hundreds of individuals now imprisoned for criticizing the military, or advocating pro-Kurdish or pro-Islamic points of views.
Zana is the widely respected former Mayor of Diyarbakir (Turkey’s largest Kurdish city). Despite spending almost 15 years in Turkish jails, where he was severely tortured, he has never advocated violence. (Blue Crane Books [Boston] will publish an English translation of Zana’s harrowing prison memoirs, Prison No. 5: 11 Years in a Turkish Prison, later this year). In May 1994, he was sentenced to four-years for statements made before the European Parliament in 1992. Members of the U.S. Congress cabled then Prime Minister Ciller calling for Zana’s immediate release.
The practice of arresting those who speak out peacefully undermines democracy and violates Turkey’s stated international human rights commitments. Restrictions on free speech, systematic torture, abuses directed at Kurds undermine Turkey’s European Union entry, and even its bid to host the 1998 Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit. Unfortunately, such ham-fisted tactics remain a central element of the government’s military-based Kurdish policy, one which prolongs a conflict that has claimed more than 29,000 lives since 1984. The government’s failure to accommodate legitimate Kurdish cultural and political aspirations fuels political instability, contributes to the rise of political Islam, and destabilizes the entire region.
It is incumbent upon Turkey’s allies and supporters of human rights to protest Mehdi Zana’s conviction and to press Turkish authorities for the release of all those jailed for peacefully expressing their views. Release of such individuals will be a litmus test of the new government’s credibility and its commitment to democracy.