Jailed Kurdish politician send message to voters
Jailed Kurdish politician send message to voters
Imprisoned Kurdish candidate of the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block Hatip Dicle sent a letter to his voters to be read in the meeting held on behalf of him in Dicle, a district of Diyarbakýr.
Zübeyde Zümrüt, an activist from Democratic and Free Women Movement (DÖKH) read the letter. Dicle called the citizens of Lice “honorable and combatant people of Lice” in the letter and continued; “This election is different than previous ones since the freedom movement is taking part in this election along with many other Kurdish and Turkish political parties. We have created an umbrella organization which makes us more powerful. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) keeps making many promises. But they never kept a single one of these promises. On the other hand, the same AKP is putting such a great effort in destroying our freedom movement. Now is the time to teach the AKP a lesson at the ballot box. We need to show them that we have had enough”.
After the letter, a sculpture dedicated to Ceylan Önkol was disclosed. 13-year-old Önkol was killed a year ago by a howitzer thrown by military when she was pasturing her family’s herd around her village.
Hatip Dicle had already spent ten years in jail before being imprisoned again.
If he wins the elections he has to be freed according to the Law.
Hatip Dicle was born in 1955. His application to the European Court of Human Rights had been lodged in his own name and on behalf of the Democracy Party (Demokrasi Partisi - DEP), of which he was the president until its dissolution by the Constitutional Court in 1994.
The DEP was founded on 7 May 1993. It was joined by 18 members of the Turkish Parliament who had previously been in the Work of the People Party (Halkin Emegi Partisi - HEP), which was dissolved in July 1993, and who had been elected in 1991 as candidates of the Social Democrat Party (SHP). On 2 November 1993 the Principal Public Prosecutor brought an action for the dissolution of the DEP on the ground that it had infringed constitutional principles and the Law on Political Parties in a written declaration that had been made by its central committee and speeches by its former president at two meetings in Germany and Iraq. The DEP's lawyers requested the Constitutional Court to hold a hearing. They argued in their submissions that it would be contrary to international law to dissolve the party and contested the legality and evidential value of video recordings that had been made at the meetings. On 16 June 1994 the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the DEP on the ground that its activities were liable to undermine the territorial integrity of the State and the unity of the nation. Mr Dicle and the 13 members of the DEP with seats in the Turkish National Assembly were disqualified from parliamentary office. The Constitutional Court found that reference had been made in the declaration and speeches to the existence of a separate Kurdish people in Turkey fighting for their independence, and that the acceptance of a Kurdish identity with all the consequences that entailed, namely the creation of an independent state and the destruction of the existing State, had been advocated. It also considered that there had been references to equality between two nations and that the acts of a terrorist organisation had been presented as a struggle for independence. The Constitutional Court said in conclusion that the activities of the DEP were among those that could be restricted under paragraph 2 of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Zübeyde Zümrüt, an activist from Democratic and Free Women Movement (DÖKH) read the letter. Dicle called the citizens of Lice “honorable and combatant people of Lice” in the letter and continued; “This election is different than previous ones since the freedom movement is taking part in this election along with many other Kurdish and Turkish political parties. We have created an umbrella organization which makes us more powerful. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) keeps making many promises. But they never kept a single one of these promises. On the other hand, the same AKP is putting such a great effort in destroying our freedom movement. Now is the time to teach the AKP a lesson at the ballot box. We need to show them that we have had enough”.
After the letter, a sculpture dedicated to Ceylan Önkol was disclosed. 13-year-old Önkol was killed a year ago by a howitzer thrown by military when she was pasturing her family’s herd around her village.
Hatip Dicle had already spent ten years in jail before being imprisoned again.
If he wins the elections he has to be freed according to the Law.
Hatip Dicle was born in 1955. His application to the European Court of Human Rights had been lodged in his own name and on behalf of the Democracy Party (Demokrasi Partisi - DEP), of which he was the president until its dissolution by the Constitutional Court in 1994.
The DEP was founded on 7 May 1993. It was joined by 18 members of the Turkish Parliament who had previously been in the Work of the People Party (Halkin Emegi Partisi - HEP), which was dissolved in July 1993, and who had been elected in 1991 as candidates of the Social Democrat Party (SHP). On 2 November 1993 the Principal Public Prosecutor brought an action for the dissolution of the DEP on the ground that it had infringed constitutional principles and the Law on Political Parties in a written declaration that had been made by its central committee and speeches by its former president at two meetings in Germany and Iraq. The DEP's lawyers requested the Constitutional Court to hold a hearing. They argued in their submissions that it would be contrary to international law to dissolve the party and contested the legality and evidential value of video recordings that had been made at the meetings. On 16 June 1994 the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the DEP on the ground that its activities were liable to undermine the territorial integrity of the State and the unity of the nation. Mr Dicle and the 13 members of the DEP with seats in the Turkish National Assembly were disqualified from parliamentary office. The Constitutional Court found that reference had been made in the declaration and speeches to the existence of a separate Kurdish people in Turkey fighting for their independence, and that the acceptance of a Kurdish identity with all the consequences that entailed, namely the creation of an independent state and the destruction of the existing State, had been advocated. It also considered that there had been references to equality between two nations and that the acts of a terrorist organisation had been presented as a struggle for independence. The Constitutional Court said in conclusion that the activities of the DEP were among those that could be restricted under paragraph 2 of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
