Sir, - The report of the start of Abdullah Ocalan's trial in Turkey (The Irish Times, May 31st) raises many serious concerns. Kurdish groups have asserted that this is a show trial and that the result has already been decided. This seems to be confirmed by the nature, location and circumstances of the trial.
A list of crimes attributed to Ocalan, but for which he has not yet been tried, has been published in national newspapers, compromising any chance of a fair trial. The European Court of Human Rights has criticised the state security courts in Turkey, under which Ocalan will be tried, saying they are not impartial. That the trial is being held on a prison island, a military base, raises further concerns about the trial. The whipping up of anti-Kurdish sentiment, and allowing victims of the 10-year conflict in south-eastern Turkey to gather near the court has grave implications for the security of Mr Ocalan and his defence team, some of whom have already suffered death threats and attacks from police.
This is the trial of the century in Turkey. It is a test of Turkey's comitment to democratic reform and to human rights. Thus far, however, in the lead-up to this trial, Turkey's government and, more particularly, the military, seem determined to convict and execute Mr Ocalan and to attempt to crush the Kurdish population and their demands for linguistic, cultural and political rights. - Yours, etc., Anne McCluskey, Kurdistan Solidarity,
Upper Camden Street, Dublin 8.