Latif Serildan,
The Kurdish people in Ireland strongly protests at the arrest of Kurdish diplomat Adem Uzun in France, we are calling it unjust and we demand his immediate release.
The Kurds in Ireland have understood that French authorities have taken this action to mollify Turkey and to prevent the Kurdish initiative from holding the conference in the French Parliament to discuss the situation in West Kurdistan.
We emphasised that the arrest came soon after a speech by Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he accused Germany and France during an interview on a Turkish TV channel on 27 September.
“The West does not want us to defeat terrorism. Particularly Germany and France do not want terror to end and this is why they allow terrorist leaders to travel across Europe freely,” the Prime Minister alleged. “The French authorities acted on the directives from the Turkish authorities and this action will damage French democracy”.
We are pointing out that French Prosecutor Thierry Fragnoli had acted in response to the Turkish Prime Minister, reiterating that he personally worked as one of the 8 prosecutors in the anti-terror unit since 2006.
“Prosecutor Fragnoli has confirmed that he, including 3 other prosecutors and 28 constables worked on PKK cases. The Prosecutor also admitted that he has arrested, tried and imprisoned many PKK militants since 2006,” the KNK added.
Over 200 Kurdish refugees have been taken into custody as a result of their political activities in France since 2007. The Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Centre was also closed down by French authorities on 2 November 2011.
On 7 October 2011, Turkey and France signed an agreement which underlined the cooperation between the two states in the fight against the PKK. This agreement laid the basis for ‘joint work between Turkish and French security forces’.
The arrest of Adem Uzun was an attack against the legitimate struggle of the Kurdish people and as such it was unacceptable. Furthermore, the Europe particularly France should not allow Turkey to export and impose its anti-Kurdish policies abroad.
Finally, we are calling on all EU countries, in particular France, to stop the criminalisation campaign against the Kurds and demand immediate release of Adem Uzun.
Mr Uzun has travelled to Ireland on many occasions he has met many Irish diplomats and politicians to highlight the situations of Kurdish people in Middle East. He has met Deputy Gay Mitchell, Senator David Norris, and Deputy Joe Higgins on many occasions. Not even once that he was treated like this in Ireland. The Kurds are demanding his immediate release.