From: mart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Fw: Turkish soldiers detain 526 Kurdish students ----- Original Message ----- From: Griann Ní Ghúilín Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 11:07 PM Subject: Turkish soldiers detain 526 Kurdish students TO THE PRESS AND PUBLIC OPINION: The Turkish soldiers detain further 526 Kurdish students who applied for the right to be educated in their mother tongue of Kurdish. During the last few days more than twenty thousand Kurdish students have been petitioning their university rectors, applying for Kurdish to be recognised as an optional subject. Their petitions have been rejected by the authorities in Turkey and some have been taken into interrogation by the Public Prosecutor's office whilst others have been subjected to the disciplinary process of the Universities. Five hundred and twenty six students handed their petitions at 100. Yil University in the city of Wan on 9th January 2002, but were arrested promptly and taken away by the military vehicles. Kurds have been pursuing for the right to be educated in their mother language in non-violent and democratic means, but these demands have been continually meted with provocation and intimidation by the State. Whilst engaged in integration process with the European Union, it is expected of Turkey not to subject its people to suppression based on languages, beliefs, political views and cultural autonomy as the democracy, rule of law and the human rights are main pillars of the Copenhagen Criteria's. Turkey however denies the right of Kurds to education in their mother tongue and arrests those who demand it. The Turkish National Security Council (MGK) was the first to react against the campaign of the Kurdish students titled as "We demand education in our mother tongue" issuing instructions to all state departments to intervene with the campaign. This is despite the fact that all Kurdish people support this campaign. The "Higher Education Council (YOK)" accordingly issued posters on which they demanded expulsions of those students requesting the right to be educated in Kurdish, as well as intimidating the petitioners in order to get them to withdraw their petitions. The student petitions lodged in Wan, Istanbul, Kocaeli, Adana, Diyarbakir, Izmir, Hakkari, Batman and other cities of Turkey and Kurdistan were consequently refused and hundreds of the petitioners were detained. We, the Kurdish Centre for Human Rights support the campaign of the Kurdish students and call upon the public opinion to condemn the ill-treatments of the Turkish authorities, which they perpetrated, and the attitude they took towards these demands. We believe that the right to be educated and the usage of the mother tongue is a universal right of every human being. 11 January 2002, Kurdish Centre for Human Rights Protest Messages and Contacts: President Ahmet Necdet SEZER, E- mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Switzerland Ambassador HE Korkmaz Halktanir, Turkish Embassy, 43 Belgrave Square, SW1X 8PA 00 _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
