Kurdish Politician Alınak May End Up In Prison Again

Kurdish politician Mahmut Alınak may go to prison one more time for calling people to civil disobedience in the speech he gave at Kars, a province in the eastern Turkey. He is accused of “praising the crime and the criminal” and “provoking people to disobey the laws.”

Alınak had to go to prison on August 12, since he refused to pay the fine given by the court for proposing to give the names of the revolutionaries of the 70s (Deniz Gezmiş, Vedat Aydın and Musa Anter)  to the streets and parks and protesting the prison conditions of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). He stayed in the prison until September 12.

Fine to the call for civil disobedience

Alınak has been convicted one more time for announcing the “Don’t let the young people die, so mothers will not cry” campaign and calling people for disobedience in the “The Priorities of Democracy” panel held by the Caucasus University Student Association on June 4, 2006.

Alınak made the following argument in his  speech: “Think what would happen if we did not regiser our children…Imagine millions from Amed to Istanbul, from Dersim to Kars, to Iğdır, to Ardahan are on the streets. Who can hold back this huge power? …They will not go to courts, they will not send their children to schools, they will not register their names and they will not register their houses. What would happen? The system would go bankrupt. Civil revolution without fighting with the police, the military. Get ready for those days.”

He will go to prison, if he does not pay until December 12

On September 16, the Criminal Court of First Instance of Kars concluded that Alınak had violated article 215 of the Penal Code twice and sentenced him to prison for four months and five days. However, the court converted the sentence to a fine of 1250 euro.

But Alınak declared that he would not pay this fine, for which the deadline is December 12, 2008. In this case, Alınak may go to prison one more time. (EÖ/TB)