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Turkey: What's in a letter? 'W' lands
Kurdish mayor in court
4.11.2006 |
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, November 3 ,-- The mayor of the
largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast
risks up to six months in jail for using the letter
W in New Year greeting cards, his lawyer Muharrem
Erbey said Friday.
The lawsuit came after Diyarbakir Mayor Osman
Baydemir, one of Turkey's leading Kurdish
politicians, sent New Year's cards last year to
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, cabinet
ministers and members of parliament, in which he
used the Kurdish expression for "Happy New Year."
Since the phrase includes the letter W, which exists
in the Kurdish alphabet but not the Turkish one,
prosecutors accused Baydemir of violating a law that
obliges state agencies, civic groups and private
institutions to use Turkish letters.
The law dates back to 1928 when the Turkish
Republic, founded five years earlier on the ashes of
the Ottoman Empire, adopted a new alphabet based on
Latin characters to replace Arabic script. |
Diyarbakir mayor Osman Baydemir |
Erbey said Baydemir's trial would start on February
6, 2007.
He is also charged in two separate lawsuits of
supporting separatist Kurdish rebels.
Turkish courts have in the past rejected
applications by Kurds to have their names officially
registered with Kurdish spellings, including with
the letters W, X and Q, which do not exist in the
Turkish alphabet.
Activists protest that many private institutions in
Turkey freely use in their names words in other
foreign languages that include those letters.
Under European Union pressure to respect human
rights, Ankara has in recent years legalized
Kurdish-language broadcasts and allowed private
courses teaching the Kurdish language.
AFP
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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