Turkey: 2 Kurds Acquitted in Language Case / Kurdish remains forbidd

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

2 Kurds Acquitted in Language Case 

Tuesday, May 5, 1998; 5:57 p.m. EDT

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- A Turkish court acquitted two Kurdish
cultural officials Tuesday of starting a banned Kurdish language
course, one of the defendants reported.

The men worked for the Kurdish Culture and Research Foundation, which
seeks more cultural freedom for Turkey's 12 million Kurds, who are not
allowed to use their language in education or broadcasting.

Yilmaz Camlibel, the foundation's president, and an aide, Mehmet Celal
Baykara, had faced up to two years in prison if convicted of holding
an unauthorized language course. They were acquitted because the court
ruled the course was private, and not open to the general public.

Camlibel, speaking to the The Associated Press by telephone, said the
prosecutor said he would not appeal, but the court also ruled that the
foundation cannot run a Kurdish language course anymore.

``We are determined to carry on this struggle to gain our educational
rights in Kurdish,'' Camlibel said, referring to a separate case in
which the foundation is suing the Education Ministry to allow them to
open a Kurdish course.

That case was appealed by the foundation last year, after a court in
Ankara rejected the foundation's demand.

``If the appeals court holds up that jurisdiction, we will take the
case to the European human rights court,'' Camlibel said.

Hundreds of writers, journalists and politicians have been jailed in
Turkey for promoting Kurdish cultural rights or allegedly supporting
Kurdish guerrillas seeking autonomy in southeastern Turkey.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan!
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