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Turkey
Members of the Nationalist Youths of Kurdistan (CNK) gather in Diyarbakir (Amed). Photos: CNK/file
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The public prosecutor’s office in Diyarbakir (Amed) recently decreed that the statement “Biji Kurdistan,” which means long live Kurdistan in Kurdish, does not constitute a crime, after deciding a group of Kurds who were briefly arrested in 2022 for chanting the sentence during a football match were not guilty.
Some supporters of the Diyarbakir-based Kurdish football club, Amedspor, waved the Kurdistan flag and chanted “"Bijî Kurdistan" during the club’s match with the Turkish football club Bursaspor on September 25, 2022. Several of the supporters in question were later arrested for allegedly spreading propaganda for a terrorist group, in reference to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They were released days later on the condition that they would remain under judicial control, meaning they could not travel abroad and had to frequently prove they were still in the country.
The Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor’s Office inspected the case late last year, concluding that it was unnecessary to bring it to court again after deciding that the acts carried out by the accused did not equate spreading propaganda for the PKK, according to a copy of the decree obtained by Rudaw on Monday.
The office also found nothing illegal in the act of waving the flag of Kurdistan, describing it as the flag of the Kurdistan Region, despite the fact that many Kurds see it as the flag of the Greater Kurdistan.
Some supporters of the Diyarbakir-based Kurdish football club, Amedspor, waved the Kurdistan flag and chanted “"Bijî Kurdistan" during the club’s match with the Turkish football club Bursaspor on September 25, 2022. Several of the supporters in question were later arrested for allegedly spreading propaganda for a terrorist group, in reference to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). They were released days later on the condition that they would remain under judicial control, meaning they could not travel abroad and had to frequently prove they were still in the country.
The Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor’s Office inspected the case late last year, concluding that it was unnecessary to bring it to court again after deciding that the acts carried out by the accused did not equate spreading propaganda for the PKK, according to a copy of the decree obtained by Rudaw on Monday.
The office also found nothing illegal in the act of waving the flag of Kurdistan, describing it as the flag of the Kurdistan Region, despite the fact that many Kurds see it as the flag of the Greater Kurdistan.
#Diyarbakır Stadyumu’nda oynanan #Amedspor-Bursaspor maçından önce maça gelen bir grup PDK Bakur ve CNK üyesi, #Kürdistan Bayrağı açtı pic.twitter.com/fq6xK5nbBj
— Rudaw Türkçe (@RudawTurkce) September 25, 2022
“My clients stood up for their actions and defended their actions before the judge. Some of them even said that they were not PKK members and that this accusation was an insult to them. They stated that they were willing to be arrested for defending Kurdistan, but that the accusation that they were members of the PKK was an insult to them,” Hisyar Ozalp, the group’s lawyer, told Rudaw on Monday.
The accused are affiliated to the Nationalist Youths of Kurdistan (CNK), a group of youth promoting Kurdish nationalism in Turkey.
The Kurdish men were detained by police and officially arrested as a result of a local court ruling but a final decision was not made until late last year, when the prosecutor’s office discarded the case.
“They told us that the T-shirts we were wearing included colors which represent a terrorist organization,” Mustafa Konuk, one of the arrested Amedspor fans, told Rudaw at the time.
The Turkish government often associates the act of displaying Kurdish symbols, especially the Kurdish flag, to a show of support for the PKK, arresting those waving it for terror charges. Nevertheless, some Turkish officials have welcomed the Kurdistan Region’s officials with the same flag during official visits.
The Kurdistan flag has is also present during Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) top officials’ meetings with their Turkish counterparts.
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