PodcastCHP councillor facing terrorism charges over ‘Kurdistan’ remark
Prosecutors have launched a terror investigation into CHP councillor Nevaf Bilke after he gave an interview in Kurdish and referred to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır as “Turkish Kurdistan.”
Duvar English
The Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into a councillor from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over charges of “conducting terror propaganda.”
The investigation concerns councillor Nevaf Bilek’s remarks made to Kurdish news agency Rudaw at the CHP’s Extraordinary Provincial Congress held in Diyarbakır’s central Yenişehir district on Sept. 10.
In the interview that was held in Kurdish, Bilek said: “Diyarbakır is really an important and historical city in Turkish Kurdistan. It is a big city.”
Following these remarks, prosecutors charged him with the crime of “conducting propaganda for a terror organization.”
The CHP councillor commented on the investigation against him in remarks made to an online news platform Medyascope, saying: “There is no need to make any comment or evaluation. Although I do not believe that there is justice in Turkey, I hope that justice will prevail.”
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