Turkey jails Kurdish editor over PKK propaganda

It was not the first time prosecutors in Turkey have sentenced editors of the Azadiya Welat daily, which in the past has run pictures of the jailed leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), branded a terrorist organisation.

Judges in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mostly Kurdish southeast, on Wednesday found Ozan Kilinc guilty on charges of disseminating terrorist propaganda on behalf of the PKK.

They said Kilinc had allowed the daily to publish photographs and texts praising the PKK during 12 editions in June 2009. It was not immediately possible to contact Kilinc.

The PKK, which launched an armed campaign against the Turkish state for Kurdish self-rule, is branded a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the EU and Washington.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party government has expanded the rights of minority Kurds since it took office in 2002. But efforts to launch a "Kurdish initiative" were dealt a blow after the Constitutional Court last year shut down a Kurdish party for what it said were links to the PKK.

/World Bulletin/