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Turkey:
Court sentences band members to 10 months imprisonment for Kurdish song |
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The Malatya Criminal Court in Eastern Turkey has sentenced band members of Grup Munzur to 10 months imprisonment for singing a Kurdish song at a concert held in Hozat on 16 June 2008.
The sentence is the second of its kind to be passed in Eastern Turkey in the past few weeks.
The court argued that band members Özlem Gerçek, Mahir Çelebi and Ercan Duman was disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organisation by performing the song 'Lexin Gerilla' states Firat News Agency.
The court based its' sentence on the lyrics of the particular song: "This song tells about the mountains, on the barricades, fields, plains, revolution and freedom struggle and martyrdom for a nice community where children want to read" (rough translation), reported the Dersim News Agency.
The particular Kurdish dialect used in the song required assistance from numerous translation experts who after
some confusion confirmed that the song also included the following words:'Guerrillas', 'shoot', 'Kurdistan' and 'victim'.
The sentence comes only a few weeks after Turkish singer Cevdet Bacga was given a similar sentence for comments made at concert in the eastern city of Siirt in 2009.
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Turkey
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| Related reading on freemuse.org |
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| 16 December 2011 |
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| Turkey: Ferhat Tunç on trial again |
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| 31 December 2010 |
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