PublisherMehdi Tanrikulu has
been sentenced to five months imprisonment for writing a petititon in Kurdish
and for speaking Kurdish in court. He will appeal against the sentence.
Bıa news centre
Feb 12, 2008
Erol ONDEROGLU
The Istanbul 1st Criminal Court of Peace has sentenced
publisher Mehdi Tanrikulu of Tevn Pulications to five months imprisonment
because he wrote a petition in Kurdish in which he complained about a prosecutor
in Diyarbakir, and because he spoke Kurdish at his trial.
The court claims that Tanrikulu violated the Laws on the Wearing of the Hat and
the Alphabet Reform, laws that have remained in place since Ataturk’s reforms.
The court said that the defendant had been “adamant” about having Kurdish
accepted by public institutions.
Tanrikulu has announced that he would appeal against the sentence.
"The so-called Kurdish people..."
On 6 February, Tanrikulu joined the last hearing of the case and made in his
statement in Kurdish, using an interpreter. He said in his defense, “I have the
right to express myself in my mothertongue; this alphabet must also be accepted
by official institutions.”
Tanrikulu explained that Diyarbakir prosecutor Muammer Ozcan, whom he had filed
a complaint against, had not been investigated at all, but that he, Tanrikulu,
had been put on trial for writing the complaint in Kurdish.
At an earlier hearing on 13 September 2007, Tanrikulu had said, “I believe in
the precedence of law, but the nature of this trial is political.”
Tanrikulu pointed out that Ozcan had used the expression “the so-called Kurdish
people” in his indictment, which represented an injury. He added that he would
continue to speak his language.
The court cited Article 222 of the Turkish Penal Code, which deals with
violations of the “Hat Wearing and Turkish Alphabet Acceptance and Application
Law.”
According to Article 39/5 of the Lausanne Agreeement of 1923, “all Turkish
citizens have the right to use their own language when speaking in court.”
"Insistence on committing a crime"
The court also took into consideration a previous twelve and a a half-year
sentence for “PKK membership” handed out by a Diyarbakir State Security Court
and argued that Tanrikulu was insisting on committing a crime.
Tanrikulu has been acquitted of “spreading propaganda of an illegal organisation”
after publishing a book by Zulfikar Tak detailing the torture methods used in
Diyarbakir prison. However, he is still on trial at the Istanbul 14th Heavy
Penal Court for the publication of the book “The Kurdish Freedom Movement and
the Role of the PKK in the Imperialist Process of Capitalism.”
