Turkish court dissolves business association over word 'Kurdistan'

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - A Turkish court in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Tuesday dissolved a businessmen's fraternity for having the word "Kurdistan" in its name and sentenced its chairperson to ten months in prison.

Chair Abdulbaki Karadeniz, already in pre-trial detention since December 2016 in another case related to his membership in the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), also received a judicial fine of 820 Turkish Liras (227 USD).

The judge ruled that the Kurdistan Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (KURSIAD), founded in 2014, was violating the Turkish code on civil institutions.

A group of business people announced the formation of KURSIAD with the aim of creating "Kurdistani" brands in April 2014 but failed to register it officially as the Interior Ministry refused to approve their application, citing a high court decision that deemed the word "Kurdistan" unconstitutional.

Then, a prosecutor reportedly launched a probe against KURSIAD's chair upon a criminal complaint by the Ankara-appointed Diyarbakir Governor's office.

In April 2016, the prosecutor demanded the dissolution of the KURSIAD and three years of imprisonment for Karadeniz because the association's charter included the words "Kurd" and "Kurdistan" seven times.

"The term 'Kurdistan' is the race-based name given to a state that the terrorist organization PKK wants to found in the Southeastern and Eastern Anatolian regions of our homeland," wrote the prosecutor in his indictment.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), fighting Turkish troops in a four decades-long guerrilla warfare over government repression of Kurdish rights, moderated its initial goal of an independent state for the Kurds to "democratization" of Turkey in 2003, four years after the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The prosecutor also claimed the word "Kurdistani" was racist and discriminatory.

A reference to the Kurdish-inhabited territories in Syria, "Rojava," which is short for "Western Kurdistan" too was in contravention of the Turkish Constitution, as it threatened the territorial integrity of Turkey.

KURSIAD's chair Karadeniz made his defense saying his case was one of freedom of expression and there were officially registered parties with the name "Kurdistan" in Turkey.

Karadeniz was referring to the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Turkey (KDP-T) and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), both of which the Interior Ministry allowed in 2014.

His lawyer Baris Yavuz argued the court's decision was an intervention in the freedom of association and freedom of expression, adding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself has said "Kurdistan" on numerous occasions including in a report about the "Kurdish issue" he wrote in 1991.

Saying "Kurdistan" remains a very delicate issue as Turkey’s Presidency, Prime Ministry, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs websites, as well as the government-run Anadolu Agency euphemistically refer to the Kurdistan Region which they officially deal with as “the Kurdish Regional Administration of Iraq.”

Editing by Ava Homa