April
22, 2007
Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party's (DTP)
controversial Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir's
trial regarding the greeting cards he sends in
Kurdish to deputies, representatives of
non-governmental organizations and citizens, started
yesterday.
The court ruled to discontinue the case on grounds
that permission was not taken from the Interior
Ministry to put Baydemir on trial.
Baydemir stated that he has been sending greeting
cards written in English, Turkish and Kurdish as
well to citizens, politicians and representatives of
institutions since 2004. |
Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party's (DTP)
controversial Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir (L) |
|
Claiming that the
criminal charge he faced was prepared with the
spirit of 1926, Baydemir stated that things have
been changed in 80 years. "Filing a suit because of
a cultural activity, a gesture is quite meaningful,"
said Baydemir. "The law regarding the acceptance of
Turkish letters rooted back to 1926 and set out the
transition from Arabic letters to Latin letters.
There is no passage or
expression concerning Kurdish in the law."
Baydemir stated that neither in national or
international law is there an article banning the
use of Kurdish. "People using or spreading their
mother language is quite natural," he said. "Sending
cards also to those who don't know Kurdish was just
a cultural gesture to show that our country has such
cultural richness. Using Kurdish in greeting cards,
billboards and meetings shouldn't be interpreted as
putting Turkish aside."
Diyarbakir mayor claimed that the fundamental
problem is the use of "W" letter. "According to the
law, using letter "W" is not a crime. When you enter
the website of the Justice Ministry they use "W" as
well," said Baydemir.
The court decided to send the case to Diyarbakir
Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
Joost Lagendijk, co-chair of the EU-Turkey Joint
Parliament Commission, Diyarbakir's Sur Mayor
Abdullah Demirtas and Kayapınar Mayor Zulkuf
Karatekin followed the trial.
"Such court cases violate the spirit of the reforms
legislated by the Turkish Parliament," Lagendijk
later told reporters.
vladimirkurdistan blogspot.com
**
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
about 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
The Iraqi Constitution mandates that a referendum on
control of Kirkuk must be held by the end of this
year to decide whether the oil-rich Kurdish province
should be annexed to the safe semiautonomous
Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
** 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" Southeast
Turkey.
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 more than 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to more than 20 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
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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