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Turkey: Pro-Kurdish DTP deputy calls for end on ban
on Kurdish in politics
13.8.2007 |
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August
13, 2007
Ankara, -- Certain issues should no longer be
considered taboos. The ban on the use of Kurdish in
politics should be lifted, said the newly elected
deputy from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP) Gulten Kisanak (Gültan Kışanak) last week.
Speaking at a joint press conference with DTP deputy
Sebahat Tuncel, Kışanak asked: “Why should a person
be forced to learn a language apart from one's
mother tongue?”
She said the natal deaths were twice as high than
some African countries in the east of Turkey because
mothers did not know Turkish.
She said all parties in Diyarbakir, including the
right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had
reached an agreement in Diyarbakir to use Kurdish in
political campaigns. |
Newly elected Kurdish lawmaker, Gulten Kisanak
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Tuncel, who was released from prison where she was
serving time for being a member of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) upon her election to
Parliament, said she and her friends in prison had
celebrated her election by dancing. “Prison
officials and even the guards came to congratulate
me. ”She said Turkey needed a civilian and
democratic constitution.
turkishdailynews com.tr
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
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 over 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.
Turkey is home to over 25 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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