You are kindly invited to attend the forthcoming KSSO seminar in association with Kurdish society at SOAS:
Seminar on the obstacles and options for a political and peaceful solution of Turkish and Kurdish ethnic conflict
By Former Kurdish Democracy Party MP and former political prisoner
Mrs Leyla Zana
Chaired by
Prof. Mary Davis
London Metropolitan University
Documentary film: LEYLA ZANA
Director:
Kudret Gunes
France 2002 / 51m / Kurdish and French with English subtitles
Leyla Zana, the first Kurdish woman MP to be elected to the Turkish
Parliament in 1992, was imprisoned in 1994 for 15 years for speaking in
Kurdish in the Parliament. Kudret Gunes’ personal look at the life of
Zana takes her to her birth-place, friends and exiled husband.
Date: 23
May 2008
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Location: Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Leyla Zana
The life of former political prisoner Leyla Zana has come to symbolise
the courage and determination of the Kurdish people to use all peaceful
means to achieve their legitimate political and cultural rights in
Turkey. She endured 10 years in prison simply for speaking just one
sentence in the Kurdish language.
In 1991 she became the first Kurdish woman to win a seat in the Turkish
parliament, a victory that was to be short lived. By uttering just one
short sentence in her native Kurdish language during the opening session
of parliament, as well as her wearing a headband in the traditional
Kurdish colours in her hair, she faced immediate calls for her arrest.
Although her parliamentary immunity protected her, after she joined the
Democracy Party, once that party was banned her immunity was stripped.
In December 1994, along with four other Democracy Party MPs (Hatip Dicle,
Selim Sadak and Orhan Dogan), she was arrested and charged with treason
and membership in the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The treason
charges were not put before the court, and Zana denied PKK affiliation,
but with the prosecution relying on witness statements allegedly
obtained under torture, Zana and her colleagues were each sentenced to15
years in prison.
She was to remain in prison for the next ten years and became recognized
as a "Prisoner of Conscience" by Amnesty International. In 1994 she was
awarded the Rafto Prize. In 1998 her sentence was extended because of a
letter she had written that was published in a Kurdish newspaper, which
allegedly expressed banned pro-separatist sentiments. While in prison
she published a book titled “Writings from Prison”.
With Turkey applying to become a member of the European Union, the
European parliament repeatedly called for her release on human rights
grounds, making its position clear by awarding Zana with the Sakharov
Prize in 1995. She also won the Bruno Kreisky Award.
In 2001 the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Turkey after a
review of her trial; although Turkey did not recognize the result, in
2003 a new harmonization law permitted retrials based on ECHR decisions.
In 2002, a film named “The Back of the World” examined her case. In
April 2004, in a trial which the defendants frequently boycotted, their
convictions and sentences were reaffirmed. In June 2004, after a
prosecutor requested quashing the prior verdict on a technicality, the
Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals finally ordered Zana and the others
released.
In January 2005, the European Court of Human Rights awarded Zana and
each of the other defendants €9,000 from the Turkish government, ruling
Turkey had violated her rights of free expression. Zana along with some
colleagues announced the new political formation Democratic Society
Movement (DTH). On August 17 2005, Democratic Society Party (DTP) was
founded as the merger of Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) and DTH.
Today she continues to command respect among the Kurdish people In
Turkey and in Kurdistan and works tirelessly for a peaceful political
resolution of the conflict that has cursed Kurdish-Turkish relations
since the foundation of the Turkish Republic.