After spending 10 years in jail, four Kurdish political prisoners walked free on June 10. Prominent political leader Leyla Zana and her three colleagues were elected to Turkish parliament in 1991, and three years later sentenced to 15 years in prison for asserting Kurdish identity.
Turkey has refused to recognize the existence of its indigenous Kurdish ethnic minority, some 12 million people. Government reforms led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the past two years have increased the legality of Kurdish language use and improved other human rights, though much progress has yet to be made.
The release of Zana and her colleagues was partly meant to encourage the European Union to set a firm date for membership negotiations with Turkey.
