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Kurdish mayor fined in Turkey for pro-rebel gesture

ANKARA, Feb 27, 2007 (AFP) - A Kurdish mayor was fined 3,000 lira (about 2,200 dollars, 1,650 euros) Tuesday for allowing women to use an official vehicle when they marked the birthday of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan two years ago, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The court convicted Zulkuf Karatekin, mayor of Diyarbakir's Karapinar district, of allocating a municipal vehicle to assist women members of Turkey's main Kurdish Party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), who planted seedlings for Ocalan's birthday on April 4, the agency said.

The judges first sentenced Karatekin, also a DTP member, to six months in jail for "making illegal donations to a political party" and immediately converted the sentence to a fine.

Karatekin has the right to appeal.

Kurdish politicians in Turkey are routinely regarded with suspicion and often seen as instruments of Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting an armed campaign against the Ankara government since 1984.

The DTP was set up in November 2005, pledging to try to resolve the Kurdish conflict through peaceful means, but has so far made no progress.

It has come under fire for sympathising with the PKK, which is blacklisted as a terror group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. Dozens of DTP members face prosecution for supporting the rebels.