ANKARA, 26 February 2005 — Four Kurdish former lawmakers, including award-winning human rights activist Leyla Zana, pleaded innocent and asked for a fair hearing yesterday in a high-profile retrial for alleged links with armed Kurdish rebels. “I reject the accusations,” Zana told the court in Ankara in her first defense argument in the trial. “The trial should be fair and in line with the decision of the (Turkish) appeals court and the European Court of Human Rights.”
Her colleagues and co-defendants — Hatip Dicle, Selim Sadak and Orhan Dogan — also pleaded innocent. The court set the next hearing for April 22 after the defense team asked for more time to present their view on how the retrial should be conducted in light of recent legal amendments aimed at drawing Turkey closer to the European Union.
Zana and her colleagues are standing trial for the third time on charges of collaborating with an armed Kurdish rebellion in southeastern Turkey. They were released in June after 10 years in jail and are unlikely to go back to prison even if they are convicted again. They were allowed a retrial in March 2004 thanks to democracy reforms that Turkey adopted in a bid to boost its prospects for EU membership.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was quoted yesterday as saying Ankara would hold talks in early March with the European Union on the thorny issue of signing a protocol extending its customs union to Cyprus. Turkey does not recognize the Greek-Cypriot government, an EU member viewed by the bloc as the sole legal representative of Cyprus.
But Ankara cannot begin its own talks in October to join the EU without first signing the customs union protocol. “Negotiations on the customs union protocol begin at the start of March. Our friends will head for Brussels in a few days’ time,” the Radikal daily quoted Gul as saying. EU diplomats say Turkey had been expected to sign the protocol by now and that Ankara was dragging its feet over a pledge it made at last December’s historic summit which set Oct. 3, 2005, as the date for the launch of its accession talks.
The Referans daily said the talks on the protocol could last two months. When Turkey finally signs the protocol extending its customs union with the EU to Cyprus and nine other new member states, it is also expected to issue a declaration making clear the move does not amount to political recognition of Cyprus.
Ankara says it cannot budge on the recognition issue without a comprehensive settlement reuniting Cyprus, which has been split on ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded the north after a Greek-Cypriot coup backed by Greece.
