|
Kurds in Turkey want official status for
their language
7.3.2006
|
|
|
|
ISTANBUL, Turkey,
- Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party called on the
government yesterday to give Kurdish the status of
an official language and scrap legal restrictions
barring Kurdish representation in parliament.
The Democratic Society Party (DTP) also criticised
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for failing to
follow up on promises for a democratic solution of
the Kurdish conflict and urged both the army and
separatist Kurdish rebels to halt armed action in
the conflict-torn southeast.
“Violence should not be seen as an option in
politics,” the statement said, stressing that the
Kurdish minority did not have ambitions to break
away.
“All restrictions on the Kurdish language should be
lifted and it should be given the status of an
official language along with Turkish in regions
where Kurds live in (Kurdistan-Turkey) western
Turkey.
“The political parties law, primarily the election
threshold, should be revised so that everybody can
use their right to political representation,” it
said.
Even though Kurds have been able to win
parliamentary seats on the ticket of mainstream
parties, pro-Kurdish parties have failed to overcome
the 10% national threshold required to enter
parliament.
The DTP also reiterated a long-standing appeal for a
general amnesty for rebels from the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been
waging a bloody separatist campaign in the southeast
since 1984.
Unrest in the region has increased since June 2004,
when the PKK, considered as a terrorist group by
Turkey as well as the European Union and the US,
called off a five-year unilateral ceasefire.
Keen to boost its democratic credentials and join
the EU, Turkey has in recent years lifted the
emergency rule in the southeast and allowed the
Kurdish language to be taught at private courses and
used in public broadcasts.
It is also compensating villagers who have been
displaced and suffered material losses during the
conflict.
But Kurdish activists say the reforms are
inadequate.
The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives, ravaged
the already meagre economy of the southeast and
forced millions of already poor peasants to migrate
in mass into urban slum areas.
AFP
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 