First Application in Kurdish to ECHR

Mahmut Alınak, former Provincial Chairman in Kars (north-eastern Turkey) of the banned Democratic Society Party (DTP), is being tried as one of 94 defendants in total on the grounds of a press release that condemned the closure of the pro-Kurdish political party. The DTP was banned by a decision of the Constitutional Court in December 2009. The defendants stand accused of "spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization".

Before his time in the DTP, Alınak was a member of parliament for the Democracy Party (DEP). He is going to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because the defendants were denied permission to present their defence in Kurdish as their mother tongue.

Request of an injunction from ECHR

The first hearing of the case was held on Wednesday (24 November) before the Kars High Criminal Court. Alınak criticized the fact that the court did not permit the defence speeches to be delivered in Kurdish. In an interview with bianet, Alınak indicated that he was going to work together with a group of lawyers in order to submit his application written in Kurdish to the ECHR in the coming week.

Alınak stated that he attended the press release issued in 2009 as an observer and a supporter but that he did not make any announcement himself on the occasion. "We will be the first applicants in history to submit an application in Kurdish to the ECHR. Furthermore, we will request an injunction so that the decision can instantly be considered in the pending case", Alınak indicated.

Alınak explained that nothing he said in Kurdish was included in the record during the hearing. Instead, it was registered in the minutes that "the defendant did not give a statement in Turkish".

Court postponed to 22 December

In an announcement made after the hearing, Alınak stated, "The Court of Kars has applied the state's century-old policy of rejection and denial, just as the Diyarbakır Court. It is clear that this is an agreement between the state legislation, the judiciary and the executive. Being a Kurd and 'Kurdishness' is considered as a crime by the government. TRT 6 [a Kurdish state channel in Kurdish] and similar implementations are deceiving and fake".

The trial will be continued on 22 December. (EÖ/VK)