Leyla Zana

EDM number 399 in 2000-01, proposed by John Austin on 05/03/2001.

That this House notes with sadness that 5th March marks the seventh anniversary of the imprisonment of Leyla Zana; recalls that Leyla Zana is the only Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament, having received 86 per cent. of the vote in 1991; offers congratulations for her fearless and outspoken opposition to the Turkish Govenment's oppression of the Kurdish people; notes that as a result of speaking a sentence in the Kurdish language in parliament, stating that she would fight for the fraternal co-existence of the Kurdish and Turkish peoples within the context of democracy, and subsequently testifying about human rights abuses in Turkey before the Helsinki Commission of the UK Congress, her parliamentary immunity was revoked; further notes that she was subsequently arrested and charged that her testimony before Congress was an act of treason for which the State Security Court sentenced her to 15 years in prison; recognises that she has been a tireless fighter for peace and for the national and political rights of her people, winning widespread international recognition and respect; further notes that the European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Peace Prize in 1995 and that Amnesty International has adopted her and her duly elected parliamentarian colleagues Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak, as prisoners of conscience; and calls upon Her Majesty's Government, the EU and other international organisations to raise Mrs Zana's case with the Turkish authorities at the highest level as a matter of urgency and seek her and her colleagues' immediate and unconditional release.

This motion has been signed by a total of 38 MPs.