Cyprus-Forum.com

[CBBB]

By SUZAN FRASER – 1 hour ago

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Kurdish politician defied Turkish law on Tuesday by giving a speech to Parliament in the Kurdish language. State-run television immediately cut off the live broadcast.

"Kurds have long been oppressed because they did not know any other language," said legislator Ahmet Turk. "I promised myself that I would speak in my mother tongue at an official meeting one day."

While members of his party gave Turk a standing ovation for the politically daring move, other lawmakers were upset.

"The official language is Turkish," said Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan. "This is written in the Constitution and laws. This meeting should have been conducted in Turkish."

Turkey's Kurds, who make up at least a fifth of this country's population, have long been repressed by the Turkish state. Turkish forces also are fighting against a Kurdish separatist group.

Until 1990, speaking Kurdish in public was entirely forbidden. Turkey continued to ban the use of the language in schools, official settings and broadcasts other than music until 2002, when — under European Union pressure — it allowed Kurdish-language broadcasts.

It still refuses to allow Kurdish education in schools and official settings, such as in Parliament, arguing that it would divide the country along ethnic lines.

Turk began his speech in Turkish but switched to Kurdish in several minutes. He said he was doing that in recognition of U.N. cultural body UNESCO's International Mother Language Day this week to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

The lawmaker was allowed to finish his speech in Kurdish.

"When (Kurdish party) members salute someone in their own language, they are prosecuted or investigated. When a mayor speaks to his people in their own language, he is prosecuted. But when the prime minister speaks Kurdish, nobody says anything," Turk said. "We don't think this is right. This is a two-faced approached. What did the prime minister ever do to free the language?"

He was referring to the fact that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took his message of inclusion into the center of Turkey's Kurdish heartland on Saturday.

There, he told the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, once the center of Kurdish resistance, that its people were "first-class citizens."

Turkey's speech in Parliament was likely to increase tensions ahead of local elections in Turkey on March 29. It also could be used by a prosecutor as evidence to shut down Turk's Democratic Society Party on charges of having ties to Kurdish rebels.

Punishments for speaking Kurdish in parliament aren't clear, but defying the Constitution can be cause to disband the party.

State-run television, TRT, immediately stopped its live broadcast when Turk switched to Kurdish, and private NTV television said the prosecutor's office quickly launched a probe.

Turk's party, which has 21 legislators in parliament, already faces possible closure by the Constitutional Court for its alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.

That party runs much of Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast and is in fierce competition with Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party.

Still, lawmaker Rustem Zeydan, a member of that party from the prominently Kurdish province of Hakkari, welcomed Turk's action.

"It's an important and right step toward societal peace," he said.

Last year, Turkey amended laws to allow the state radio and television, TRT, to launch a 24-hour television station airing shows, films and news in Kurdish. But the changes do not affect laws on speaking Kurdish in parliament.

Turk's party has submitted several draft laws to free the speaking and use of Kurdish officially, but they were not backed by other parties and never went anywhere.

In 1991, Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Zana took the oath in parliament in the Kurdish language, causing an uproar. She was later stripped of her immunity, prosecuted on charges of separatism and links to the rebels and served a decade in prison along with three other Kurdish legislators.

Turk is unlikely to face a prison term, but legal analysts say his action could strengthen the prosecutor's case to disband his party.

Reaction to Turk's move split along ethnic lines.

Yigit, a student in Ankara, who would not give his last name fearing reprisals from Kurds, objected to the speech in Kurdish.

"If you are a citizen of Turkey, you have to speak Turkish," he said. "I cannot accept this action. Such attempts should be punished."

Residents of Diyarbakir were supportive.

"It was a courageous step," said Halil Bayram, a technician. "However, I also think it was a political move before the elections. I am not happy that politicians are escalating tensions before the elections."

Shopkeeper Hasim Uyanik said Turk should not be sanctioned.

"Perhaps it was not legal, but I hope he won't be punished," he said. "Such steps toward legitimizing Kurdish must be encouraged."

Multiple calls to UNESCO in Paris went unanswered Tuesday.

Associated Press reporters Selcan Hacaoglu and Emre Baran contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... gD96I2TEG3

[insan]

What's your point, CBB? Tell us and then we might discuss ur point. Throughout the history, until early 80s there's no problem between Turks and Kurds. What's happened then and a speratist Kurdish group suddenly appeared in Turkey? Could enmity spreading Hellenic and Armenian self-interest groups have a finger on it? Looking forward to hear your opinions free from any fears of being accused of treason.

[YFred]

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?

[CBBB]

What's your point, CBB? Tell us and then we might discuss ur point. Throughout the history, until early 80s there's no problem between Turks and Kurds. What's happened then and a speratist Kurdish group suddenly appeared in Turkey? Could enmity spreading Hellenic and Armenian self-interest groups have a finger on it? Looking forward to hear your opinions free from any fears of being accused of treason.

I thought my point was obvious. This bloke spoke in Kurdish for UNESCO's International Mother Language Day and he was chastised, TV coverage was closed down, he will probably get his b*ll*cks cut off as well.

Freedom of speech, respect for minorities?

[CBBB]

I forgot to mention that the Kurds also make up 20% of the population in Turkey and Kurdish is not an official language, nor do they have an equal status with the 80% of the population that are Turkish.

[Piratis]

Unfortunately some in Turkey have no clue what democracy means.

Democracy is both majority rule and human and minority rights.

When the Turks are the majority, they want to cripple democracy by removing minority rights.

When the Turks are the minority, they want to cripple democracy by removing majority rule.

All democracies are systems in which citizens freely make political decisions by majority rule. In the words of American essayist E.B. White: “Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half the people are right more than half the time.”

But majority rule, by itself, is not automatically democratic. No one, for example, would call a system fair or just that permitted 51 percent of the population to oppress the remaining 49 percent in the name of the majority. In a democratic society, majority rule must be coupled with guarantees of individual human rights that, in turn, serve to protect the rights of minorities and dissenters — whether ethnic, religious, or simply the losers in political debate. The rights of minorities do not depend upon the good will of the majority and cannot be eliminated by majority vote. The rights of minorities are protected because democratic laws and institutions protect the rights of all citizens.

http://www.america.gov/media/pdf/books/ ... -brief.pdf

[paliometoxo]

these turks dont give any respect for minotiry in turkey and they expect half power in cyprus....

[insan]

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?

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- The head of a Kurdish nationalist party in Turkey addressed parliament Tuesday in the Kurdish language -- which is illegal -- prompting the national broadcaster to pull the plug on the live broadcast.


Ahmet Turk began his speech in Turkish before switching to Kurdish.

In his address, Democratic Society Party leader Ahmet Turk began his speech in Turkish, addressing the value of a "multilingual culture" and decrying the fact that the Kurdish language is not protected under Turkey's constitution.

"We have no objection to Turkish being the official language, yet we want our demands for the lifting of the ban on Kurdish language to be understood as a humanitarian demand," he said.

Turk then announced he would deliver the rest of his speech in Kurdish and, at that point, state broadcaster TRT cut the broadcast.

"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."

The situation is somewhat ironic because Turkey began a new Kurdish language state television channel, TRT6, on January 1. Turk pointed out that paradox in his speech to parliament.

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"Despite the Kurdish broadcast on TRT 6, there is no legal protection (for the language)," he said. "(Politicians) get punished for speaking Kurdish while Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan speaks Kurdish during rallies. Therefore, Kurdish is forbidden to Kurds yet free for (the ruling party) and the state."

The issue comes ahead of hotly contested elections scheduled to be held on March 29. Political analysts have said Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish acronym AKP, is trying to gain votes in the Kurdish southeast, which has traditionally been held by the Democratic Society Party, or DTP.

Erdogan's launching of the Kurdish language channel is considered a historic development not only because speaking the language in parliament is illegal, but also because the Turkish republic for decades officially denied the existence of ethnic Kurds, calling them "mountain Turks" instead.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europ ... =hpmostpop

[YFred]

What's your point, CBB? Tell us and then we might discuss ur point. Throughout the history, until early 80s there's no problem between Turks and Kurds. What's happened then and a speratist Kurdish group suddenly appeared in Turkey? Could enmity spreading Hellenic and Armenian self-interest groups have a finger on it? Looking forward to hear your opinions free from any fears of being accused of treason.

Insan, how can you defend what Turkey is doing to the Kurds.
Which ever way you look at it, it is wrong. No excuse for it what so ever.
There was another incident like this just after they changed the law, where another politician spoke in a meeting and got arrested. His appeals to the arresting officer that it was no longer illegal fell on deaf ears. He got taken to the police station and then released.
Everyone should be aware of the law by now.

[CopperLine]

That Ahmet Turk spoke Kurdish in the Assembly is a great move. More power to him.

It is though worth bearing in mind what the reaction would be if Turkish was spoken in the RoC parliament or Welsh was spoken at Westminster or Breton in the French parlement ? Isn't this a direct consequence of the use of official languages in official institutions !