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DIYARBAKIR, Kurdistan-Turkey, Sept 26 (Reuters)
- Whenever Suleyman Yilmaz and his classmates spoke
Kurdish at school in the 1960s, the Turkish teacher
would rap their fingers with a ruler.
After decades-long repression of the Kurdish
identity, last year he set up one of several Kurdish
language schools opened amid fanfare as part of
Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
But the classrooms now stand empty in the
impoverished southeast and Kurdish language
broadcasters are silent, a sign of the gap between
the promise and implementation of EU-inspired
reforms as Turkey prepares for accession talks.
"The state has made it hard for us and provided no
support," Yilmaz complained in his office, where a
television set shows a Kurdish music programme
broadcast from western Europe.
"People have been subjected to an assimilation
policy and that turned people off the whole idea of
learning," he said. Lack of interest played a role
in a decision to close the schools this summer.
Many of Turkey's 12-million strong Kurds want
Kurdish to be used in normal schools as the language
of instruction, he said.
Yilmaz rejected local talk that rebels from the
banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had sought the
schools' closure.
The sensitivity of Kurdish demands in Turkey can
partly be explained by the violence that has racked
the southeast since the PKK launched an armed
separatist campaign in 1984. More than 30,000
people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the
conflict.
Under EU pressure, in 2002 Turkey lifted bans on
teaching and broadcasts in Kurdish, but bureaucratic
resistance delayed implementation of the reform.
Last year state TV and radio began regular, limited
programming in Kurdish and other minority languages.
Broadcasters in the southeast are yet to benefit
from this easing of restrictions.
SMALL STEPS
At the Gun (Day) station in Diyarbakir, there is
growing frustration at the failure of authorities to
allow Kurdish programming 1-1/2 years after the
channel made its application.
If permission is granted, broadcasts will be limited
to 45 minutes a day or four hours a week with
Turkish subtitles.
"These are small steps for us. They have something
of a symbolic meaning for us and we are hoping that
the restrictions will eventually be removed," said
station director Cemal Dogan.
The station has fought some 20 court cases, mainly
over Kurdish song lyrics. Most ended in acquittal
but it has been shut down twice for a month, once
when guests spoke Kurdish on a live programme.
The EU reforms have inspired greater confidence
among the region's Kurds to express their political
views, but not on air.
"People can now express themselves freely in the
streets, even to the extent of defending an
independent Kurdistan, but if I broadcast that, it
is regarded as a crime," Dogan said.
The station has already prepared arts and culture
programmes and Dogan speculated that permission to
broadcast may be given before the Oct. 3 start of EU
talks as a political gesture.
Ironically, the station can already broadcast
Kurdish language advertisements. Women parade in
brightly coloured Kurdish dresses in one advert for
clothing. An advertiser extols a local book fair in
another.
Locals can also watch Kurdish language satellite
programmes from nearby Iraq or the pro-PKK Roj TV
based in Denmark.
OLD HABITS
The Kurds have acquired a powerful advocate in the
country's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who last
month became the first Turkish leader to refer to a
"Kurdish problem", which he said should be resolved
by democratic reforms.
In a visit to Diyarbakir, Erdogan vowed solidarity
with the southeast and expressed disquiet at the
failure of authorities to allow private channels to
broadcast in Kurdish.
Many Kurds welcomed his initiative, which has
coincided with a resurgence of separatist violence
and nationalist tensions.
The regional head of the Human Rights Association,
Selahattin Demirtas, said the main obstacle to
progress lies in Turkey's judicial and bureaucratic
apparatus, where old habits die harder than old
laws.
"(They) have shown resistance, hence there has been
a problem with implementation (of reforms). The
problem is more one of mentality than of laws
themselves," he said.
At the same time, the government is under pressure
to revive restrictions under anti-terror legislation
because of growing separatist violence, with
militants attacking military targets in the
southeast and even tourists in western Turkey.
"These are backward steps," Demirtas said. "We say
that the best security is to increase democracy."
Reuters
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