The Kurdish Joan of Arc, Leyla Zana, and three other prominent Kurdish MPs have been freed after ten years from Turkish jail pending on appeal. The 1994 Rafto Prize award recipient, said after her release; “Today is not the day to fuel sad feelings or pain, today is the day for brotherhood and understanding.”
In 1994, Ms. Leyla Zana, was sent to jail for 15 years – along with fellow MPs Orhan Dogan, Hatip Dicle and Selim Sadak – for collaborating with the PKK. Her appeal will begin on 8 July, but it is thought that the court then will quash the verdict.
The four had their sentences confirmed in an earlier retrial this year, but European institutions warned that their continued imprisonment would affect Turkey´s efforts to join the EU. Both the Turkish Minister of Justice, Cemil Cicek, and the EU commissioner for enlargement, Guenther Verheugen, links the release to the Turkey´s entry into the EU. “Today´s decision is a sign that the implementation of political reforms, which Turkey has been introducing in the past two years, is gaining ground,” said Guenther Verheugen.
Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said those who opposed Turkey´s entry into the EU should think again. “This is the last bargaining chip in the hands of those who were seeking excuses in Turkey´s EU bid,” Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying. “The Turkish legal system has done its part, now it´s the others´ turn.”
A modern Joan of Arc
In the course of defending her imprisoned husband and other detainees, Zana herself fell victim to official brutality. “I was detained during a protest in front of Diyarbakir prison in 1988”, she said. “For seven days I was interrogated under torture. I was forced to take off my clothes and was brutally beaten.” Angry and unbowed, Zana ran for parliament and won a seat and in 1991. She was the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament.
In 1994, she shocked the nation at her inauguration wearing a hair band in the traditional Kurdish colours of yellow, green and red. She also spoke Kurdish, defying a ban of using the language in official settings. Based on her actions at the inauguration and subsequent speeches and writings in defence of Kurdish rights, the Turkish court sent her to prison for treason.
Leyla Zana has for long-time been in the focus of various governments and human rights organisations. International pressure saved her from the death penalty. The European Parliament has criticized Turkey´s
record on human rights, democracy, and sexual equality, and is requiring reforms before Turkey is eligible for EU membership. And she became an high profile dissident when she was awarded the European Parliament´s Sakharov Peace Prize in 1995 – a year after her conviction.
In 1994 she was awarded the Rafto Prize, and the norwegian Rafto Foundation argued that:
“In her struggle for freedom Leyla Zana symbolizes the struggle for a peaceful solution to
the Kurdish question in Turkey, with the goal of achieving respect for the human rights of
the long-time persecuted Kurdish people“.
It is important to emphasise that her release doesn’t change the situation for other political Kurdish prisoners. There are still approximately 20000 Kurdishprisoners in Turkish jail and almost 3 millions refugees in Turkey.
