Report by Owen Bowcott from the Guardian UK:
Families seek redress for Turkish incursions
Raids on Kurds blamed for deaths and damage in Iraq
British lawyers take cases to human rights court
British lawyers are taking Turkey to the European court of human rights in pursuit of compensation for deaths and damage allegedly inflicted by repeated bombardments of northern [...]
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
ALERT - TURKEY 6 June 2008
Three members of children’s choir face charges of “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation” after singing Kurdish song in U.S. music festival
(Antenna-TR/IFEX) - Three children, members of the Diyarbakir Yenisehir Council Children’s Choir [Koma Dengê Zarokên Amedê - The Children’s [...]
Kurdish Media reports on recent statements from members of Iraqi Parliament:
London (KurdishMedia.com) 05 June 2008: As the result of the Turkish and Iranian bombardments for the last two years, 450 southern Kurdish families have been displaced, two MP’s of the Kurdistan bloc in the Iraqi Assembly stated in a press conference in Baghdad. It was [...]
From the Turkish Daily News:
Tens of thousands of people gathered yesterday in Kadıköy district on Istanbul’s Anatolian side demanding a “peaceful solution” to the Kurdish problem.
Many demonstrators at the gathering who spoke to the Turkish Daily News highlighted their demands for peace, while saying they do not believe that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is [...]
Alliance for Kurdish Rights (AKR) is concerned for the well-being and safety of civilians in the Kurdistan Federal Region in Iraq after months of heavy bombardments by the Turkish and Iranian militaries. On May 4th, 2008, the LA Times reported the destruction of another border village town, Rezga, as a result of cross-border airstrikes and [...]
Released by the Kurdish Institute of Paris:
Sign the petition by clicking here.
We, the undersigned, declare that we are Kurds and that we want to be recognised as such, to live in dignity as Kurds in the land of our ancestors and to express our culture freely.
Since the creation of the Turkish Republic, the Kurdish people, [...]
In the wake of increased political uncertainty and army interventions, nationalist sentiment and violence increased. Freedom of expression continued to be restricted. Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and the use of excessive force by law enforcement officials persisted. Prosecutions for violations of human rights were ineffective and insufficient, and fair trial concerns persisted. The [...]
Amnesty International calls upon the Turkish authorities to ensure that the right to freedom of peaceful assembly is respected and that law enforcement officers use force only where strictly necessary and only to the extent required to perform their duties.
Amnesty International
In a letter to the Minister of the Interior Mr Besir Atalay, Nicola Duckworth, [...]
Source: TODAY’S ZAMAN
Former Kurdish deputy Leyla Zana has recommended that sweeping changes be made to Turkey’s Constitution, saying that the current one, drafted during military rule in 1982, is the source of many problems that deprive Turks and Kurds in the country of their freedoms.
“I believe it is the Constitution that was drafted by generals [...]
Published earlier but worth revisiting, from the Associated Press:
STRASBOURG, France: The European Court of Human Rights is facing a huge case backlog and at its current pace would need 46 years to rule on all complaints, a survey said Wednesday.
The court, underfunded and lacking judges, is struggling with almost 80,000 cases, some of them [...]
