Turkey vote a ‘test’ for Kurds, says veteran Kurdish politician

MARDIN, Turkey: Jailed by the junta after Turkey’s 1980 military coup and again after last year’s failed putsch, veteran Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk still hopes for peace but fears the consequences of next month’s referendum.

In an interview with AFP, Turk said the referendum of April 16 on whether to approve an executive presidency was a "test" for the Kurds.

"Whether it is a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ result, of course, it is important for Turkey... but especially regarding the Kurds, I see this as a test," the former mayor told AFP at his home in the city of Mardin.

Turk, 74, has spent five years of his life in prison including 20 months behind bars following the coup of 1980.

His most recent arrest was in November, a few days after he was removed as mayor of Mardin, one of the main cities in the southeast with a Kurdish majority.

A senior member of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Turk was detained on charges of links to Kurdish militants, causing outrage across Turkey.

A court ordered his release on February 3 after supporters expressed concern over his health but he is still subject to a travel ban pending his trial.

In an editorial for the Hurriyet daily, mainstream columnist Ahmet Hakan described him as the "most peaceful, most opposed to violence, the wisest" politician within the Kurdish movement.

In a sign of Turk’s popularity, he was helped out during his latest incarceration by rival politicians, including Deniz Baykal, former leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Turk was just one of the 43,000 people arrested in the wake of the failed coup of July 15.

In the days following the putsch, the government imposed a state of emergency which has been extended twice and is likely to be renewed again when it expires on April 19.

And it has staged a major crackdown, which has seen more than 100,000 people suspected of links to the coup-plotters as well as to Kurdish militants detained, suspended or sacked from their public sector roles.