ERNK: Canada Against The Kurds?

kurdeng at aps.nl kurdeng at aps.nl
Fri Jun 2 20:58:13 BST 1995


From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: ERNK: Canada Against The Kurds?
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl

------------------------ Forwarded from : kcc at magi.com -------------------------


National Liberation Front of Kurdistan (ERNK)
Press Release 28

Is Canada After A Political Blackmail Against The Kurds?

     The information reaching our office indicates that the
Canadian authorities, together with Turkey and some other
countries, are preparing a political trial against the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK). This is done in the person of a 17-year-old
Kurdish girl who tried to enter Canada illegally last year.
     The trial is set for June 5, 1995. The prosecutor is making
its case on the premise that "the Kurdish girl is a member of the
PKK and hence a threat to the cause of humanity". This ought to be
the most interesting logic that the prosecuting team will put
forward. We regard it as a political gaffe and a travesty of law to
boot. We do that for the following reasons:

1. The young Kurdish girl, the subject of this trial, is neither a
member of the PKK not its high level official. To even think of
such a claim is ludicrous. She, like many other Kurdish youngsters
and their families, could be a sympathizer.

2. To argue that a member of the PKK or its high level official is
tantamount to a crime against humanity is an absurd proposition.
That is because, other than the Turkish government, neither a state
nor a court of law has ever made such an allegation to date.

3. To even consider this young girl for these accusations is a
blight on the values that we hold as members of the human family.
Kurdish refugees do go to the far corners of the world and some are
caught in the process. But, in none of the countries where they
have looked for refugee status has the host government sought to
affiliate them with being a member of a particular party or a
nation in terms of their reception into that country. Even if she,
as an individual, were to be found guilty of some wrongdoing, the
people she comes from could never be put on trial with her.

     Let us, since it seems to warrant, make ourselves clear. We
are a national liberation movement. We are on record to abide by
the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their relevant sections that
proscribe the rules of war. On our own land, we are waging a
struggle for self defense. The whole world has come to accept us as
such. Millions of Kurds have invested their hopes and aspirations
in our work. Only the Kurdish people can be the judge of our party.
If the Canadian government wishes to take over the work of the
Turkish fascist courts, the task is going to be a heavy one.
     Let it also be clear that the PKK is on record for dissuading
the Kurdish people from leaving their homeland and has even
undertaken campaigns to call on the Kurdish people to return home.
This young Kurdish girl, it looks like to us, is being used as a
test for larger designs against our people.
     The Kurds, who were oppressed for too long and who are now
facing massacres, are in the midst of a life and death struggle.
Neither they nor their party, the PKK, has a bone of contention
with the Canadian government. To proceed with this trial with its
stated aims and to invite experts from America and other countries
to substantiate the accusations will lead to nowhere. We trust that
neither the Canadian government nor its judiciary branch will
commit themselves to this wrong.

Ali Sapan,
ERNK European Spokesperson,
June 2, 1995

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Kurdistan Committee of Canada		Tel: (613) 733-9634
2487 Kaladar Ave. Suite 203		Fax: (613) 733-0090
Ottawa, Ontario, K1V 8B9		E-mail: kcc at magi.com
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