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05/09/2005
KurdishMedia.com

Sulemani-Kurdistan(KurdishMedia.com) 05 September 2005: The trial of seven-men accused of the assassination of Eastern Kurdish politician Kemal Shahin was adjourned.

The group of seven men accused of killing a Western [Syrian] Kurdish politician Kemal Shahin, including a high-ranking member of the PKK, Dogan Dideri, appeared in court in the Kurdish city of Sulemani. However, because no lawyers were present to represent the group, the hearing was adjourned to the 07 September 2005.

The seven men have been in detention since their arrest in February 2005, and if found guilty, they may be sentenced to death.

In the last several months, several assassinations have been linked to the PKK, including Sipan Rojhelat, Hikmet Fidan and Kemal Shain.

Sipan Rojhelat an Eastern [Iranian] Kurd and a leader of the PWD party which split from the PKK, was assassinated on 06 September 2004 in the Kurdistani city of Mosul. Hikmet Fidan was assassinated on 28 August 2005 in the Kurdish city of Amed [Diyarbekir], when he split from the PKK and became the representative of PWA of Northern Kurdistan.

Kamal Shahin, also known as Kemale Sur, split from the PKK and was assassinated in Southern [Iraqi] Kurdistan on 17 February 2005. He was leading a Western [Syrian] Kurdish political group.

What they all had in common was their split from the PKK and working for the establishment of fresh Kurdish political parties.

???

bizarre, but i guess its a common name.

Basically the Kurdish people are the biggest stateless nationality in the world. The Turkish Kurds aren't even allowed to speak their own languge in public. They are beaten by the police and sneered at by Turkish people (obviously not every Turkish person) but the Kurds are denied a country of their own and considered second-class citizens even in Turkey let alone if they come here as refugee's! The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
are just terrorists. The Kurds want equal rights and to be able to call themselves 'Kurdish' rather than 'A mountain-Turk who has forgotten his language' as was the official line. They aren't allowed to speak Kurdish, to call themselves Kurdish, to teach their children Kurdish... Every day at school they have to stand up on front of the flag and recite ' ne mutlu Turk'um diyene - I am happy to say I am Turkish'.


So the PKK are many twisted and bitter individuals who do have something to complain about but are going about it in entirely the wrong way. Violence is never the answer.

*Oh I just got what you mean about the name ! It is REALLY REALLY common. If you shout 'Kemal, Yilmaz or Huseyin in public about 20 people will look 'round.

OFFICIAL UNDERSTANDING OF RACISM IN TURKEY
Racism is prohibited by Turkish law. But this does not include 'Turkish racism'.

Minorities, who oppose this and identify themselves as non-Turkish, (i.e Kurdish) are activeiy being portrayed as racist, and there are various legal measures directed against these 'racists'.

In the Constitution of the Turkish republic, the following phrase is mentioned thirty-three times:

'Anybody who opposes the indivisibility of the Turkish Republic with its nation and its country, will be deprived of their basic human rights and freedoms.'

In schools, all pupils have to rise when their teacher enters the classroom and have to respond to his 'Good Morning' with 'Thank You'. And then they have to recite a long text starting with the phrase 'I am Turkish, I am honourable, I work hard.' This text ends with 'I give my existence as a present to the Turkish existence.'