ANKARA
Wheelchair bound, 76-year-old Kurdish writer and intellectual Yasar Kaya, touched down in Ankara's Esenboga International Airport on Thursday after a two decade exile in Germany.
Kaya, who founded the pro-Kurdish, Democracy Party in 1993 - banned a year later by the Turkish government - was welcomed by his wife, Yurda Alaca and daughter Berivan Kaya.
"My husband's health is not good. He has always been a freedom fighter. He never took up arms. His name appeared on an unidentified murders list and he had to go abroad only because he was leading a political party."
"We are waiting for peace, and fortunately there have not been any martyrs since last year. We hope the solution process will succeed," said Alaca.
An Ankara court recently lifted the arrest warrants for other Democracy Party members, 68-year-old Yusuf Serhat Bucak and Serafettin Kaya (believed to be in his mid seventies). Bucak is suffering from leukemia, while Kaya has a heart condition.
Warrants were lifted on condition that Kaya testifies before the court within three months. This is what he did right after his arrival, which now makes him immune from being charged again in connection with the Democracy Party, according to Article 246 of the Turkish Code of Criminal Procedure.
Six Kurdish Democracy Party deputies were arrested in 1994 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In 2002, the European Court of Human Rights held the Democracy Party's dissolution to be contrary to Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (freedom of association).
englishnews@aa.com.tr
