She has been a tireless advocate of a peaceful solution to Kurdish-Turkish conflict, referred to in Turkey as the 'Kurdish problem.' In her struggle for Kurdish rights, Zana has served as an elected representative in the Turkish parliament (government), but was also imprisoned in the Ankara Central Prison for nine years. Zana has worked since the early 1980s for human rights and recognition of the Kurdish minority in Turkey. Worse yet, imprisonment, torture, unexplained disappearances of family members, and even murder are part of the life of Kurds in Turkey. Violations include prejudice (a negative attitude towards others based on a prejudgment about those individuals with no prior knowledge or experience) and discrimination (treating some people differently than others or favoring one social group over another based on prejudices) in employment and education continued suppression of freedom of expression in personal speech, in writings, and in media broadcasting and forced displacement when homes belonging to Kurds are purposely destroyed. For decades, Kurds living in Turkey have been subjected to human rights violations at the hands of the Turkish government. Supporting separation has long been considered a crime in Turkey and results in harsh consequences, such as imprisonment. Kurds that favor separation from Turkey are called separatists. Many Kurds living in Turkey wish to unite with Kurds from Iran, Iraq, and Syria and establish their own country, Kurdistan. The Turkish government fears that any form of official recognition that the Kurds are distinct from the Turkish people would encourage the Kurds to push harder to form a new nation out of Turkish territory. Turkey has long considered recognition of the Kurdish people and their culture a threat to Turkish unity. It is not die and kill, but live and let live.' The language and method of solution of our age is dialogue, compromise and peace. Kurds descended from Indo-European people who have inhabited the mountainous regions of southeastern Turkey, northern Iran, northeastern Iraq, and northeastern Syria for at least four thousand years. Leyla grew up in the village of Silvan near Diyarbakir, a city in southeastern Turkey with a large Kurdish population.

Leyla Zana is a Turkish citizen of Kurdish ancestry.

Writings from prison leyla zana