Yekta Uzunoglu

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Yekta Uzunoglu or Yekta Geylanî (b. 1953 Silvan, Diyarbakır, Turkey), is a contemporary Turkish writer, translator and entrepreneur of Kurdish origin.[1] In 1971, he moved to France to continue his studies. From 1973 to 1979, he studied general medecine at the University of Prague. He became involved in the resistance movement against the communist regime of Czechoslovakia after 1968. When the regime of Gustav Husák began to hand Kurdish students over to Saddam Hussein, he was among a group of Kurdish students who organized a hunger strike. After completing his studies, he was expelled from Prague and moved to Germany in the 1980s where he stayed for a couple of years and helped in establishing Kurdish Institute of Bonn. He returned to Prague after the Velvet Revolution. He has been an active member of Médecins Sans Frontières, and has helped Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan and set up a field hospital. He received the František Kriegel prize for civic courage in 2006.

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[edit] Works

He has participated in editing of a Kurdish grammar book, translated parts of Bible and works of Karel Capek into Kurdish. He has also cooperated with the Kurdish Institute of Paris.

[edit] Books

  1. Kurdská přísloví, 64pp., Lidové noviny Publishers, Praha, 1993.[2]

[edit] Quest for Justice

According to Amnesty International, Yekta was arrested in September 1994 based on charges of abduction and torture laid by Göksel Otan, a Turkish citizen living in the Czech Republic. Amnesty International stated that they believe the accuser to have been working as a police agent. However, statements of several Czech witnesses and representatives of a pharmaceutical company contradict the timing of the alleged charges. In 1996, the Czech Minister of Interior, Jan Ruml, admitted that Yekta had been abused by the police. The charges of conspiracy to murder and economic fraud were withdrawn in April 1995 and June 1998, respectively. He was released on 12 March 1997 after 31 months in custody.

Yekta was granted German citizenship while imprisoned, he chose to stay in the Czech Republic in order to clear his name. He appealed a decision to close down his case in Sepetember 2003. The court hearing began on June 25, 2004 but the process was delayed until August 2006. On 5 and 6 October 2006, the accuser (Göksel Otan), retracted his original testimony and decalred that Yekta Uzunoglu did not torture him.

During the trial, Yekta Uzunoglu received support from various organizations such as The Czech Helsinki Committee (CHC), The Charta 77 Fundation. Amnesty International has urged the Czech authorities to investigate the violations of Yekta's rights during the trial and to review this case in order to identify the flaw in the Czech criminal justice system.

Several renowned Czech figures including former president Vaclav Havel and actor Zdenek Sverak have expressed support for Uzunoglu's quest to clear his name.[3][4]

[edit] Allegations of the involvement of the Turkish government

Yekta alleges that the police charges against him were part of a conspiracy orchestrated by the Turkish government under Tansu Çiller and former communists including foreign minister Jaromin Johanes who now lives in Turkey.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR710012007 Fair trial concerns in the case of Yekta Uzunoglu
  2. ^ SKC01 - Úplné zobrazení záznamu
  3. ^ Radio Prague - News
  4. ^ :ICE: Insight Central Europe
  5. ^ http://www.pen-kurd.org/kurdi/yekta-geylani/tirkiye-li-basur-talane-dike.html

[edit] References

  1. A letter from prominent Czech personalities
  2. Fair trial concerns in the case of Yekta Uzunoglu, Amnesty International, March 2007.
  3. Statement for the 2006 František Kriegel Prize.
  4. On The Role of Turkey in Iraqi Kurdistan, Yekta Uzunoglu, Kurdish PEN, March 2007.
  5. Petr Uhl's - Open letter to Charter 77 about Uzunoglu and Janouch.