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Turkey: Kurdish party faces ban for
speaking mother tongue
9.6.2006
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A public prosecutor
requested the ban of the pro-Kurdish Rights and
Freedoms Party (Hak-Par) yesterday for speeches made
in Kurdish by party members at its congress last
year.
In yesterday's hearing of the case, which has been
going on for a year, the public prosecutor argued
that party leaders knew the use of Kurdish at public
meetings is a crime, but that the defendants
committed the crime deliberately and accepted that
they did.
Prosecutor Hasan Coskun Cetinbilici requested the
party be banned under Article 81/c of the Political
Parties Law.
He asked for at least six months in prison for the
accused, party head Abdulmelik Firat and other party
administrators.
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP),
which distributed cards to celebrate Nevruz, which
included a Kurdish phrase, for the occasion a few
months ago, also faced legal proceedings under the
same article. A court ruled the cards be
confiscated.
Article 81/c of the same law, entitled "Prevention
of the Occurrence of Minorities," stipulates that
political parties can't use languages other than
Turkish for their party congresses, meetings,
election campaigns, bylaws or party programs.
They also can't use or distribute signs, banners,
video or audiocassettes, in short, any kind of
document, written or verbal, in a foreign language.
A Nationalist Action Party (MHP) provincial member
who gave a speech in Kurdish in the
southeastern city of Diyarbakir last month,
however, hasn't faced prosecution. Neither has his
party, known for its nationalist tendencies,
criticized him.
The Hak-Par defendants accepted that they made
speeches in Kurdish but maintained that the crime
defined in the law is against the Constitution and
the European Convention on Human Rights.
The prosecutor, in reply, said that the courts
aren't the places to discuss the rationale behind
existing laws and that they are obliged to implement
existing legislation.
At today's hearing the defendants will present more
of their defense.
thenewanatolian com
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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