Diyarbakir- Northern Kurdistan: The Diyarbakir Court sentenced Selim Sadak, mayor of the Kurdish city of Siirt to two years imprisonments under the charge of "spreading propaganda for the PKK", the Kurdistan Worker Party. The reason for his conviction was a statement made to a journalist where Sadak used the term "Kurdistan".
Mr. Sadak however did not attend the court for hearing and he was represented by his lawyer Şakir Demir. In his defence speech lawyer Demir stated that his client's utterances should be evaluated within the right to freedom of expression. According to the lawyer, Sadak referred to "Kurdistan" as a geographical region and a historic fact. Demir said Sadak meant that a place called "Kurdistan" exists.
The Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) was founded in 1973 as the result of the continuous and systematic oppressions and the denial of the Kurdish nation by the occupying powers of Kurdistan. The PKK took up arm in 1984 since all the possible political and diplomatic means applied for 11 years in between 1973-84 proved exhausted. The PKK however declared its first unilateral ceasefire in 1993 since it believed the arm struggle hit its targets. Since 1993 to date the PKK has declared unilateral ceasefires in 6 different occasions and called upon Ankara to solve the Kurdish problem in a peaceful democratic procedure.
Despite the facts that the PKK has declared 6 unilateral ceasefires and also it sent peace groups in two different occasions yet the PKK is considered as a 'terrorist' organization by Ankara and the US. It also continues to be on the blacklist in EU despite the court ruling, which overturned the decision to place the Kurdish freedom movement on the EU's terror list “By labelling PKK as a terrorist organisation, the EU and the US are giving the Turkey a green light to target its civilians. They give the Turkish government a free hand to do what it will, a mother of Kurdish martyr said”.
It should be noted that after 1954, apart from the Korean war, 1949-52 and the invasion of Cyprus, 1974, the Turkish Army operations have continued to be exclusively against the Kurds.
