Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) main trial has begun at Diyarbakır 6^th High Criminal Court early Monday. 175 people, including Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies, mayors, human rights defenders and journalists, are tried in the scope of the KCK Diyarbakır case and among them 108 are standing trial while under arrest.

The hearing in Diyarbakır is attended by 50 defendants, including BDP's jailed deputies Kemal Aktaş and Selma Irmak, as well as author Nuray Mert and lawyers and relatives of the defendants.

Before the beginning of the hearing, defense lawyers requested a translator from the court to enable defendants to express themselves in their mother tongue Kurdish. The chief judge rejected the demand saying that the law allowing defense in mother tongues at courts had still yet to officially come into force.

Following the approval of the law by the Parliament on 24 January, the first legal Kurdish defense was given by former mayor of Batman, Nejdet Atalay, on 25 January. Atalay's plea in Kurdish was officially put in the court’s record.

The new arrangement is part of a 13-article amendment proposal to the Criminal Procedure Code (CMK) and to the Law on Execution of Penalties and Security Precautions. The much-debated law will officially come into force after being published in the Official Gazette.

KCK trials have made no progress so far because of the deadlock caused by the denial of the right for defendants to express themselves in their mother tongue.