Cyprus-Forum.com

[boulio]

Insan for gods sake a muslim greek(turkish ethnicity)was nominated two years ago by Pasok to be the prefacte for Eastern Macedonia-Thrace.there have been numurous mp's by both major parties in the greek parliment.people own there land,own businesses,are taught turkish for the whole minority and speak there language in thrace freely.and continue there customs.


how many greeks can claim that in turkey?

[runaway]

And yet it seems bizarre that that the "Turkish" minority in Greece has actually grown and prospered, whilst the Greek minority in Turkey (which was protected by the Treaty of Lausanne) has been all but exterminated. But why am I surprised, we all know the respect Turkey holds for international law.

Are you kidding? It's prohibited to say they are "Turk" over there. I wonder what "Turkish" minority rights they have. Turkish Teachers Association was shut down in Western Thrace because they can't use the word "Turkish".

[paliometoxo]

no thats unthinkable they wouldent in amillion years and no one can force them to either kurds dont have th epower unlike turkey did to do so in cyprus by force

[YFred]

And yet it seems bizarre that that the "Turkish" minority in Greece has actually grown and prospered, whilst the Greek minority in Turkey (which was protected by the Treaty of Lausanne) has been all but exterminated. But why am I surprised, we all know the respect Turkey holds for international law.

Are you kidding? It's prohibited to say they are "Turk" over there. I wonder what "Turkish" minority rights they have. Turkish Teachers Association was shut down in Western Thrace because they can't use the word "Turkish".

If they feel so confident, why doesn't Greece give the Turks a referendum to decide to stay in the prosperus EU or join with Turkey.
I dare you!
In UK, we did with the Scotts and Welsh!

[Nikitas]

There is a difference between speaking in public and speaking in an official venue. But the shocking thing is the turning off of the TV cameras, not the legality or otherwise of the use of Kurdish in parliament.

Turning off the cameras is equal to denying a fact, which in this case was the man speaking another language. I wonder what excuse the TV directors and editors will have for this.

[CBBB]

There is a difference between speaking in public and speaking in an official venue. But the shocking thing is the turning off of the TV cameras, not the legality or otherwise of the use of Kurdish in parliament.

Turning off the cameras is equal to denying a fact, which in this case was the man speaking another language. I wonder what excuse the TV directors and editors will have for this.

I should think their excuse wa that they didn't fancy having their private parts removed if they carried on broadcasting it!

[insan]

Insan for gods sake a muslim greek(turkish ethnicity)was nominated two years ago by Pasok to be the prefacte for Eastern Macedonia-Thrace.there have been numurous mp's by both major parties in the greek parliment.people own there land,own businesses,are taught turkish for the whole minority and speak there language in thrace freely.and continue there customs.


how many greeks can claim that in turkey?

That's what human rights reports say. Human rights watch is active all around globe. They don't only observe human rights violations of Turkey.

[insan]

There is a difference between speaking in public and speaking in an official venue. But the shocking thing is the turning off of the TV cameras, not the legality or otherwise of the use of Kurdish in parliament.

Turning off the cameras is equal to denying a fact, which in this case was the man speaking another language. I wonder what excuse the TV directors and editors will have for this.

If u read u would learn what "excuse" they had.

"Since no language other than Turkish can be used in the parliament meetings according to the constitution of the Turkish Republic and the Political Parties Law, we had to stop our broadcast," the TRT announcer stated. "We apologize to our viewers for this and continue our broadcast with the next news item scheduled."

[Tim Drayton]

It seems the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing. I was under the impression the the law about speaking Kurish in public had been changed some years back.
What the bloody hell is going on over there?
Can any of our Turkish friends explain whats going on?

Even in the darkest days of the 12 September junta when Kurdish was declared to be "mountain Turkish" rather than the separate language that it is, it was still posible for people to use this language in private conversations. I started learning some Kurdish from friends who spoke this language in the early nineties so I can confirm from personal experience that it has always been possible to speak this language in private. What, bizarrely, was forbidden, rather than speaking the language, was to refer to it as Kurdish in print or in a public setting. Thankfully, much has changed and there are Kurdish newspapers on newstands and the state television channel now broadcasts in Kurdish.

However, the Republic of Turkey remains a unitary state and Turkish is the official language. The language of state schools, courts and parliament is Turkish. Apart from Kurdish there are about thirty minority languages in Turkey. Virtually all speakers of minority languages living in Turkey also has Turkish as a second native language. Thanks to the policy of one official language, every citizen may travel the length and breadth of this large nation and conduct official business of any kind without difficulty. The same applies to parliament. Turkish is the official language of the country and the language in which parliamentary debates are to be conducted. Parliamenary debates are supposed to be understood by all those present and this can only be achieved if everybody uses the official language of Turkish. Turk was just pulling a cheap stunt here, but his action was wrong. The majority of those present do not understand Kurdish, and by using Kurdish he was excluding these people from the debate.

There is probably a case for making Kurdish a second official language in certain provinces where Kurdish speakers are in the overwhelming majority. However, this is not the case at the present and citizens in a law-based state are required to obey the law and the constitution. I do not often find myself disagreeing with Copperline, but in this case I condemn Turk for addressing parliament in Kurdish.

[Simon]

Runaway, your point bears no relevance to mine whatsoever. Which would you prefer: a) extermination; or b) Being called a Muslim minority rather than Turkish ? The minority in Thrace are not just Turkish, so Greece classes them together as a Muslim minority. Can you blame them? Look how Turkey acts with regard to its minorities. It is already violating Greece's sovereignty in the Aegean, and constantly invading its airspace. Why give them another excuse to claim more Greek land?