AKIN
By Bob Filner
Mar 8, 2001

Seven years and two days ago, Leyla Zana was arrested at the door of the Turkish
parliament building in Ankara, Turkey. Nine months and three days later, she was sentenced
to fifteen years in prison. A duly and popularly elected representative, she was consigned to
serve time behind bars.

What had Leyla Zana done to deserve such a punishment? Who sat in her judgement? Did
they ever think the verdict would stand the test of time? This vigil and this gathering are a
proof of what went wrong both at her arrest and later at her hearing. The friends of liberty all
over the world were incensed by the Turkish government.

Seven zealous prosecutors of the State Security Courts had accused her of, among other
things, speaking in an illegal language (they did not bother to name it, such is the depth of
disrespect for the Kurdish people in Turkey), addressing a standing committee of the United
Congress and being a member of an illegal organization.

The judges of the State Security Courts, two civilians and one military, concurred. Only the
fear of alienating the European public opinion -- lest Europe shut out Turkey of its
deliberations for membership with hefty financial gains, saved Leyla Zana and her
parliamentarian friends from the danger of being executed by hanging.

A long list of irregularities had always marred the case of Leyla Zana and her friends from
the very beginning.

Coming into this world as a Kurd is not illegal in Turkey. But growing up as such or
wanting to remain so is. To that crime, Leyla Zana pled guilty. For that crime she accepted
her sentence with courageous stoicism and noted, it is a price she is paying for democracy. A
few years later, to the offers of release if she feigned illness, we will let you, she said no,
never. For her politics was a calling to serve a higher good. The Kurds were the object of this
commitment and love.

Despite being violated by violence of all kinds by the various branches of the Turkish
government, Leyla Zana never, for a moment, wavered in her commitment to nonviolence.
She said she wanted peace but no war, brotherhood but no enmity and equality without
resentment.

In her closing remarks at what many believed was a Kangaroo trial, she said, she wanted the
boundaries of freedom and democracy expanded and the dominance of Turkish race over the
Kurdish one ended. She wanted friendship to be given premium and hatred eradicated.

There was no one in Turkey to take Leyla Zana and her friends' offer of olive branch as duly
elected Kurdish representatives in a country that lived a war but thirsted for peace. Arrows
sharpened with hatred were unleashed on the Kurdish resistance fighters and voices such as
Zana's were locked behind closed doors and closed prisons.

A devastating war that could have spared an overwhelming number of Kurds the loss of their
loved ones and the Turks their treasure, the loss of which became more than apparent in the
last month's financial crisis, was waged not to resolve an issue but only to sow the seeds of
hatred between the Turks and the Kurds for generations to come.

This vigil, cold and difficult at the beginning and long and taxing as may be it's future, has
my support. It's goal of restoring to the Kurdish people their choice of representatives
through nonviolent vigilance, here across from Turkish Ambassador's residence, is in the
best tradition of Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. King.

Behind me stands a replica of a Turkish prison cell that serves as a reminder of how fragile
freedom is. If duly elected representatives can be thrown among these four walls, what can
be the lot of the average Kurd in a place like Turkey? Thousands have been locked up and
so far there seems to be no end in sight.

But vigils like these make it impossible for the oppressors of freedom to hide behind fancy
words like democracy and display the practice that is tyranny. A champion in this field,
Mahatma Gandhi said it best when he noted, "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you. Then you win."

The participants of this vigil will go through these cycles as well and in the end win the
battle for the beautiful in the human spirit. The love of freedom has always triumphed over
the hatred of one race over the other.

It is Kurds and Kurdistan now and it is Kurds and Kurdistan forever.

Thank you.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com