Press Statement from UK Delegation in Diyarbakir to observe the trial of 151 Kurdish political activists and human rights defenders: We, as delegates from Britain of varying backgrounds and ethnicities welcome the opportunity that has been afforded to us to have firsthand insight into these historic trials. During our observations thus far we have had the opportunity of meeting and speaking with Mayors, Parliamentarians, Lawyers, Academics and many other interested parties. This has given us the opportunity to explore at firsthand the issues in these trials and have helped to shape our understanding of the actual meaning of these trials. We had firsthand experience of being in the Courtroom with the 151 defendants and their 250 lawyers yesterday and today. We can confidently … [read more]

In a speech, Leyla Zana had praised Abdullah Ocalan for his tireless work for the Kurdish causes and announced him as the Kurdish national leader. She also stated that if Erdogan is intending to solve the Kurdish issue he should take Ocalan as the interlocutor and instead of travelling to Diyarbakir he should visit Ocalan in his solitary confinement in the Island of Imrali Prison. In another speech Leyla Zana expressed his admirations to the PKK and its imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan's importance to the Kurdish people to the importance the brain and heart have to humans. "They have created a new life for the Kurdish people, so that a people that used to be ashamed of its existence gained a spirit of freedom and resistance, Zana said" Leyla Zana the winner of the Sakharov Prize … [read more]