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By Evin Cheikosman:
Kurdish mother, Mulkiye Demir Kilinc, was recently convicted for selling BOOKS related to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) at the Mesopotamian Culture Center in Diyarbakir,Turkey. To some this is regarded to be a punishable crime, to others a petty crime, and to many more not a crime at all.
Kilinc’s one year jail term starts on May 19, at which time her two twin infants will also be joining her. Kilinc asked the Turkish government if her sentence could be postponed for a year so that her six-month-old twins are a little older and can walk. She states: “If the sentence is postponed for a year, they will be one- and –a half years old, so they will be able to walk. They will not spend their infancy, when they only can crawl, at prison. I can take care of them more easily if they can walk.” However the government rejected this request and organizations like the Human Rights Association (IHD) have arranged a demonstration in Istanbul to protest the sentence. In addition, pro-Kurdish parties, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have also been putting forth efforts to convince the court to revoke the sentence.
It is unbelievable that this is happening in today’s day and age. It is also nonsensical given the fact that the Turkish government has been negotiating with the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for over a year now. The negotiation between the two parties began so as to end the thirty year long conflict and bloodshed between the PKK and Turkey. In exchange for the PKK leaving the country, Turkey agreed to allow greater cultural and linguistic rights for Kurds. Of course Turkey’ part of the deal has yet to be realized, but that doesn’t mean that Turkey has not and is not negotiating and associating with the PKK and Kurds alike. Thus this is plain hypocrisy that the Turkish government is talking to Ocalan and the PKK but punishing a mother who was selling PKK books. How could their possibly be peace, and how can Kurds trust in the Turkish government if these kinds of injustices are still being committed against them? How could they feel safe and believe that change, hope, and promises are being honored?
For Kilinc, she is suffering the repercussions of this decades old conflict and her babies are too. It is not fair and the sentence should be revoked. I understand that the PKK is still considered a “terrorist organization” to Turkey, but why is it that a woman who is selling BOOKS that happen to be about the PKK is claimed guilty? Realistically, did she mean any harm?
When comparing her so called crime to those of let’s say, Prime Minister Erdogan, who has been the subject of corruption scandals and cases of bribery, let’s not forget the recorded phone call that was posted on the internet in late February, where $10 million was offered to the Erdogan family by Turkish oil baron Sitki Ayan in exchange for tax breaks on his Turkey-Iran pipeline project. And how about the leaked phone conversations between Erdogan and his son Bilal, where the PM asked his son to remove $1 billion from the homes of family members and conceal it!? Are these not crimes and punishable by law? But no, a woman with two infants is sentenced to jail for selling PKK books, a “crime” that is apparently unforgivable, heinous, and reprehensible. Hypocrisy, pure hypocrisy.
Evin Cheikosman is a Kurd living in Los Angeles, CA, A recent graduate in International Politics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, she has studied abroad in Berlin, Germany and will soon be traveling to Zhuhai, China on a teaching assignment. Thereafter she will be pursuing a masters degree in foreign affairs. During her free time, Evin posts facts and opinions concerning Kurdish politics on her blog: Minority Politico
