DIYARBAKIR, (Northern Kurdistan), Jan 25 (Reuters) - The mayor of a province in
southeastern Turkey was sentenced on Thursday to two years in jail for
supporting the banned PKK in a speech at the funeral of one of its guerrillas,
court officials said.
The PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, has been blamed for 30,000 deaths since
1984, when it began its armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland.
The court ruled that Mardin Mayor Cemal Veske had no reason to attend the
funeral as he was not a relative or friend of the guerrilla -- killed by Turkish
forces in 2005 -- and so his presence amounted to propaganda.
He also said in a speech that the only people who were addressing the Kurdish
problem were the PKK, the officials said.
Several other mayors from the region have been tried for supporting the PKK,
which broke off a five-year ceasefire in 2004.
The organisation declared another unilateral ceasefire last year, which the
Turkish military has not recognised and continues to fight the group in the
mountainous southeast.
