PUBLISHER FACES 3 YEARS IN "BARZANI" CASE
BÝA, Turkey
Aug. 8, 2006
Doz Publishing House editor Ali Riza Vural faces 3 years jail for
publishing a 2-volume book on Iraqi Kurdish leader Barzani. Publisher
charged with "insulting and ridiculing the Republic". Next hearing
listed for November 20 at Istanbul court.
BIA News Center 08/08/2006 Erol ONDEROGLU
BÝA (Istanbul) – Doz Publishing House editor Ali Riza Vural faces
up to three years imprisonment if found guilty on charges of
"insulting and ridiculing the Republic" by publishing a two-volume
book on Iraqi Kurdish leader Mullah Moustafa Barzani and the Kurdish
national movement.
"Barzani and the Kurdish National Movement" was originally published
in February 2003 and an initial court case launched against it was
dismissed after a change in the law. A new investigation was launched
after its second print in May 2005, which had led to this case,
which was launched on April 6.
Vural is to appear at court for his next hearing listed for November
20 to be tried under article 301/2 of the Penal Code.
While the general content of the case is under question, its references
to Kurdish revolts during in the early 20th century are subject to
charges. The book evolved around the life and memoirs of Mullah
Moustafa Barzani (1903-1979) who was father of current Kurdistan
Democrat Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani.
"The Kurds rebelled one after another" says a section of the book.
"They revolted against the imperialists and the regional states
that robbed them of their rights. All of the uprisings were crushed
with violence, In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal crushed the Kurds in a very
hard way."
Continues the excerpt subject to charges:
"Whereas he, [modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal] managed to
create the Republic, kick the Greeks our of Turkey’s soil and have the
allied forces recognize the Turkish state through the Kurds. At the
beginning Mustafa Kemal was making generous offers to the Kurds but
when his feet stood strong, he forgot all the promises he had given."
Another part of the book refers to the Armenian migration in the
region, a particularly sensitive topic in Turkey and often subject
to court cases where expressed in a form that does not conform with
official history. (EO/AD/II/YE)
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