(25 Nov 1999) English/Nat
Supporters of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan have reacted swiftly to the decision of a Turkish appeals court to uphold his death sentence.
The head of the Brussels based Kurdish parliament in exile, Ismet Sherif Vanly, said that the decision was expected but that it was not a just one.
He compared the justice system in Turkey with the regimes of Hitler and Mussolini and appealed to the international community to intervene on Ocalan's behalf.
The headquarters of the Kurdish parliament in exile is located in Brussels, Belgium.
Kurdish politicians were quick to react on Thursday to the decision of an Ankara court to uphold the death sentence passed on the Kurd rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
In its brief ruling, the court stated that the previous trial in which Ocalan was sentenced to death had been held "in accordance with legal procedures."
Ocalan's lawyers had asked for a retrial.
They said that Ocalan was prevented from meeting with his lawyers and that his arrest and the conditions in which he was kept afterwards were illegal.
Ocalan himself has argued that he is trying to turn his Kurdish guerrilla group into a political party and that hanging him would only lead to further bloodshed.
The leader of the Kurdish parliament in exile said that he had predicted the decision, and attacked the system which produced it.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I could say that the verdict was rather expected owing to the state of flow of the so called democratic Turkish state. The appeals court could not take another decision but Turkey is not, however, a state of law in the meaning of the Charter of the UN and universal declaration of human rights because law should be a just law. Hitler, Mussolini had their own law. Stalin had his own law, but Turkish law is not a just law'.
SUPER CAPTION: Ismet Sherif Vanly, head of Kurdistan National Congress
He hinted that the verdict could lead to reprisals by Kurds around Europe.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"They (Kurds) do not want to see Abdullah Ocalan executed and Europe could expect that if anything is done against the person of Abdullah Ocalan they should expect many other things as a normal reaction of Kurdish masses , Kurdish people'.
SUPER CAPTION: Ismet Sherif Vanly, head of Kurdistan National Congress
The decision puts the Turkish government in a difficult position.
If the sentence is endorsed Turkey's application to join the European Union may well be set back.
No member of the European Union imposes the death penalty and the Ocalan case is considered a key test for Turkey.
But emotions in Turkey run extremely high and many Turks want Ocalan to pay for leading a guerrilla war that has led to 37-thousand deaths.
Right-wing members of the government who are crucial to the stability of the ruling coalition are saying that Ocalan must hang.
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