Turkish transsexual star on trial over army criticism

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

ISTANBUL (AFP) — One of Turkey's most popular singers went on trial Wednesday on charges of turning the public against the army, an offence punishable by a three-year prison term.

The charges were brought after Bulent Ersoy, a transsexual singer of Turkish classical music, said on a television show that if she had a son, she would not send him to fight separatist Kurdish rebels waging a 23-year campaign that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

"The motherland is of course indivisible, but to knowingly send these youths to their deaths? ... Why do we fall for this trap?" she asked.

Ersoy, 56, made the comments in February when the Turkish army was engaged in a week-long ground operation against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq.

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