Turkey releases Kurdish MP Sirri Sureyya Onder held for PKK propaganda
Turkey releases Kurdish MP Sirri Sureyya Onder (L), October 4, 2019. Photo: HDP’s FB
ISTANBUL,— A Kurdish politician was released from prison in Turkey on Friday after the constitutional court said his detention for “spreading propaganda for an armed terrorist organisation” was unlawful.
Sirri Sureyya Onder, a former member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was sentenced to three years and six months in September 2018 alongside party founder Selahattin Demirtas.
They were accused of supporting Kurdish militancy for speeches they made during the Kurdish New Year festival of Newroz in March 2013.
Demirtas came third in last year’s presidential election despite running from jail.
The constitutional court ruled on Thursday that the conviction against Onder was a violation of his right to free speech and ordered his release pending a retrial.
In July, the constitutional court similarly ruled unlawful convictions in a high-profile trial of academics who signed a peace petition related to the conflict against Kurdish separatists.
Speaking to the crowd outside, Onder said; “The friends have sent you their greetings. We cannot rejoice at release from prison at the moment. We can feel happy only when a democratic and peaceful step is taken. It is of great value that the Constitutional Court made this decision by unanimous vote. I hope it will set an example for other cases as well. After all, we say what we believe. Whatever we said, we said it for peace. We will continue to talk for peace and democracy.”
The PKK took up arms in 1984 against the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to push for greater autonomy in Turkish Kurdistan for the Kurdish minority who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 79-million population. More than 40,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish rebels, have been killed in the conflict.
A large Kurdish community in Turkey and worldwide openly sympathise with PKK rebels and Abdullah Ocalan, who founded the PKK group in 1974 and currently serving a life sentence in Turkey, has a high symbolic value for most Kurds in Turkey and worldwide according to observers.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AFP
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