Van deputy Aysel Tuðluk sentenced to two years prison sentence
Van deputy Aysel Tuðluk sentenced to two years prison sentence
Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block Van deputy Aysel Tuðluk has been sentenced to two years in prison for disseminating propaganda for the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party).
The sentence comes as a result of a case opened by the Van Specially Authorized Prosecutor's Office. At the center of the investigation a speech the Kuridsh deputy delivered in the Yüksekova district of the southeastern province of Hakkari in March 2010.
Interviewed by NTV channel, Tuðluk said: “What do politicians do? They speak, they express their views. This can disturb some people. Everything should be explicitly discussed unless it includes violence. Everything would be different today if we had been able to discuss the Kurdish issue 20 years ago. In the speech for which I am given a two years prison sentence I was actually calling for peace. What did I say in that speech? I said that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan should be accepted as an interlocutor. The state itself is talking to Öcalan. Why is my reference to Öcalan a crime?”.
Tuðluk, who last Sunday has been re-elected co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) was banned from politics when the Democratic Society Party (DTP, which was then replaced by the BDP, Peace and Democracy Party) was closed in 2009.
As established by changes to the Constitution ratified last year with a referendum, deputies whose political party is shut down are able to continue participating in politics.
The sentence comes as a result of a case opened by the Van Specially Authorized Prosecutor's Office. At the center of the investigation a speech the Kuridsh deputy delivered in the Yüksekova district of the southeastern province of Hakkari in March 2010.
Interviewed by NTV channel, Tuðluk said: “What do politicians do? They speak, they express their views. This can disturb some people. Everything should be explicitly discussed unless it includes violence. Everything would be different today if we had been able to discuss the Kurdish issue 20 years ago. In the speech for which I am given a two years prison sentence I was actually calling for peace. What did I say in that speech? I said that PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan should be accepted as an interlocutor. The state itself is talking to Öcalan. Why is my reference to Öcalan a crime?”.
Tuðluk, who last Sunday has been re-elected co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) was banned from politics when the Democratic Society Party (DTP, which was then replaced by the BDP, Peace and Democracy Party) was closed in 2009.
As established by changes to the Constitution ratified last year with a referendum, deputies whose political party is shut down are able to continue participating in politics.
