Congress Members
Seek Freedom for Kurdish Politician

WASHINGTON (November 23, 1997.)  Kurdish parliamentarian Leyla Zana 
was thrown into a Turkish prison, her supporters say, for speaking out against 
Turkey to members of the U.S. Congress. 

Turkey officials contend she is a member of a terrorist group that is waging
guerrilla warfare against the democratic government. 

Today, in the nation's capital, her case is a sticky subject. Even though
Turkey is a key ally of the United States, 153 House members have signed a
petition that asks the Clinton administration to seek Zana's unconditional
release. 

The issue is sufficiently dicey that one House member, Gary Condit,
D-Calif., mistakenly mentioned as a supporter in a book called "Free Leyla
Zana!" has sought to distance himself from Zana. He has asked Zana's
supporters for an apology. 

Still, many others said Zana, about 36, has a right to express her views. 

"The hallmark of any democracy is the right to free speech," senior
legislative assistant Ian Houston said on California Republican George
Radanovich's behalf. "Turkey's conduct in the Leyla Zana case is
inappropriate and it shouldn't be tolerated." 

A State Department official said Thursday that the United States is in
continuous dialogue with Turkey about human rights and that Zana's
imprisonment has been raised. 

The official declined to comment further, but a State Department document
said Zana's case is hampered by her membership in the Kurdistan Workers'
Party, or PKK, which the United States has classified as a violent group. 

In summary, the document recommended "forthright public advocacy of Zana's
full rights as a convicted member of a terrorist organization, while taking
extreme care to avoid handing the PKK a propaganda boon." 

Turkish Embassy spokesman Namik Tan said recently the Zana case "is not a
simple subject" because "Zana appears to be a sympathetic figure." 

But, he said, she has been identified as a PKK member and was convicted in a
public trial of separatism for promoting the destruction of Turkey. Zana was
sentenced to 15 years in prison in December 1994. 

"I concede we, like other countries, have many problems," Tan said. "But she
defamed our country." 

Roughly 15 million Kurds live in Turkey, and many of them are been locked in
a bloody ethnic war with the government over demands for a separate state. 

In 1991, Zana became the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament. 

Her troubles began shortly after her election when she broke the ban on
speaking Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament by saying: "I am taking this oath
for the brotherhood of the Turkish and Kurdish peoples." 

She steamed Turkey government officials again on May 17, 1993, when she
addressed members of the Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress, saying
"Kurds face double standards in the so-called Turkish democracy." 

She asserted that instead of freedom, Kurds face imprisonment as potential
separatists. "Life has become a political struggle, one that ties an
individual to his people, because our people suffer and because we want to
end their suffering," she told members of Congress. 

Nearly a year after the speech, the Turkish government revoked her
parliamentarian immunity and had her arrested. 

As her imprisonment reaches the three-year-mark, Tan said he wonders whether
the signers of the petition, sent to Clinton on Oct. 30, have been duped by
Zana's followers. 

Kathryn Cameron Porter, founder of the Human Rights Alliance in Washington,
D.C., and wife of Rep. John Porter of Illinois, said Tan's contention was
"nonsense." 

"Tan is being disingenuous," she said Friday. "The Leyla Zana case points
out how callous the Turkish government is when someone speaks the truth." 

Kathryn Porter has taken an active role, staging a hunger strike with Zana's
countrymen, who have maintained a daily vigil outside the White House. 

She began the fast with five others on Oct. 20. Because she is a diabetic,
she became ill six days later and decided to take one meal a day. 

She quit her fast Thursday, as did Kani Xulam, 37, a 1990 graduate of the
University of California at Santa Barbara. The last of the six, Ferda
Beyrikan, 36, of Washington, D.C., said Friday he will continue as long as
his body allows him.