LEYLA ZANA

A large proportion of Turks are of Kurdish extraction. A minority of the Turkish Kurds want to take part of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran and create a new state of their own—Kurdistan. The PKK has been a revolutionary terror organization within Turkey and other nations and at the time Turkey, unwisely many thought, restricted the use of the Kurdish language as there was a movement there similar to the English only movement in the U. S. at the turn of the millennium. The official position is that all were Turks and there were not separate peoples. Zana, a member of Parliament had Parliamentary Immunity, although she shocked and outraged the conservative, nationalist Turkish establishment. When she left Parliament she joined an illegal political party, was sentenced to jail for terrorism on the testimony of two people who had been tortured and in response to international protests was released in 2004. A number of American Congressmen nominated Zana for the Nobel Peace Prize.

A large proportion of Turks are of Kurdish extraction. A minority of the Turkish Kurds want to take part of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran and create a new state of their own—Kurdistan. The PKK has been a revolutionary terror organization within Turkey and other nations and at the time Turkey, unwisely many thought, restricted the use of the Kurdish language as there was a movement there similar to the English only movement in the U. S. at the turn of the millennium. The official position is that all were Turks and there were not separate peoples. Zana, a member of Parliament had Parliamentary Immunity, although she shocked and outraged the conservative, nationalist Turkish establishment. When she left Parliament she joined an illegal political party, was sentenced to jail for terrorism on the testimony of two people who had been tortured and in response to international protests was released in 2004. A number of American Congressmen nominated Zana for the Nobel Peace Prize.