Turkey briefly detains leading Kurdish politician Leyla Zana
Speaking to a Kurdistan24 reporter outside the court, Zana said she was questioned over a speech she gave Newroz, the Kurdish new year, in March 2016.
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) - On Wednesday, Turkish police briefly arrested the prominent Kurdish politician and Sakharov Laureate, Leyla Zana in the city of Diyarbakir as a part of two legal probes against her.
Zana who represents the Kurdish province of Agri at the Turkish Parliament as a lawmaker for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was entering Diyarbakir on a car as police took her to a courthouse in the city after the arrest.
The European Parliament awarded Zana with the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1995 for her defense of human rights.
Kurdistan 24's Diyarbakir Bureau said after a prosecutor's interrogation, the court decided to set Zana free with the condition of "legal control," meaning she would have to sign a paper at a local police station several days a week.
Speaking to a Kurdistan24 reporter outside the court, Zana said she was questioned for a speech she gave in Newroz, the Kurdish new year, in March 2016.
Zana who lives in a village in Diyarbakir has not attended parliamentary sessions in the Turkish capital of Ankara as the then Speaker of the Parliament deemed her swearing-in as an MP in November 2015 null.
She uttered the phrase "the nation of Turkey" instead of "the Turkish nation" as found in the MPs' oath of taking office during the opening ceremony of the Parliament, adding the Kurdish slogan "Bijî Aştî," which means "long live the peace."
Zana refused to retake the oath, as the Turkish Parliament's management emptied her room there and removed her advisors as well as secretaries from their jobs.
Her alteration of the official oath was reminiscent of her first term as an MP of the 1991 ceremony during which she wore a headband with the three colors of green, red and yellow found in the flag of Kurdistan.
Back then despite protests, Turkish lawmakers said, "I take this oath for the affinity between the Turkish people and the Kurdish people," speaking in the Kurdish language whose public use was banned.
Zana was serving the first year of a 15 years' incarceration for "treason and membership in the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)," after a speech she gave during a visit to the United States in 1994.
Zana's brief detention is a part of a larger government crackdown on the Kurdish opposition since last year, as HDP's 12 lawmakers including its co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag remain in Turkish prisons.
Editing by Ava Homa
(Hesen Kako in Diyarbakir contributed to this report.)