Kurdistan Observer

Danish PM Shocked By Investigation Of Mayors Over Letter
Saturday, June 17, 2006

The Associated Press

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was shocked to learn that 56 Turkish mayors were under investigation for urging him to resist pressure from Ankara to close down an allegedly pro-Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) TV station in the Scandinavian country.

A state prosecutor has charged 56 mayors, members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), with "knowingly and willingly helping" the outlawed PKK when they urged Rasmussen not to close the Danish-based Kurdish broadcaster Roj TV.

The mayors could face up to 10 years in jail.

Turkey accuses Roj of being a mouthpiece for the PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 with the aim of carving out an ethnic homeland. More than 30,000 people have been killed in that conflict.

In the letter sent to Rasmussen last December, the mayors of some of the largest cities in the Southeast urged him to resist any pressure from Ankara to close down Roj TV, which they said was necessary for democracy in Turkey.

"I find it rather shocking ... that because you write a letter to me, you are being accused of violating the law," Fogh Rasmussen told Danish public radio. "It is shocking that it can take place in a country that is seeking EU membership."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan boycotted a news conference to be held jointly with Rasmussen last November in Denmark to protest the presence of a journalist from Roj TV. Rasmussen said excluding the correspondent would have violated the EU's principles of freedom of expression.

Last week, a mayor from the Southeast was sentenced to 15 months in jail for comments broadcast on Roj TV.

Last year, the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen demanded that Denmark revoke the station's broadcasting license. The Danish government has refused to do so, citing freedom of speech.