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TDN-Eight former Democratic People's Party (DEHAP) executives from Cizre and a journalist were jailed on Tuesday after surrendering to the police.
They were sentenced to serve one-and-a-half-years for “inciting hatred” in a press statement they released on Aug. 15, 2005. The Supreme Court of Appeals approved their sentences. DEHAP was closed in 2005, after which most of its members joined the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP).
Current DTP Cizre branch leader Ali Güven, Genel-İş union Cizre branch leader Bahattin Yağardık, six other local party executives and Ülkede Özgür Gündem newspaper's Şırnak representative Hüseyin Afşar surrendered to the police, with Cizre Mayor Aydın Budak, DTP Şırnak branch chief İzzet Belge and a crowd of party supporters.
Belge said: “Such punishments, from the past to the present, will not make us retreat on our determination to democratize the country. It only gives us more power. Our efforts will help us to unite Turks and Kurds.”