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Investigation opened in Turkey over ID
card with Kurdish name
28.10.2009
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October
28, 2009
ISTANBUL,
Turkey, — The Interior Ministry
has initiated an investigation against a
population-registry official in Ankara who gave a
baby an ID card with a Kurdish name, news agencies
reported Tuesday.
Upon the request of the baby’s father, Kenan Kırkaya,
the official
registered the baby’s name as
Hêvî Jiyan. The letters “ê” and “î”
do not exist in the Turkish alphabet.
Anonymous officials speaking to the private news Web
site NTVMSNBC said that the letters “â,” “î” and “û”
have been used before,www.ekurd.netbut
not the letter “ê.” The ministry officials said the
infant’s ID card might be cancelled if any mistake
by the official were to be determined.
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The officer in the registration office wrote the
baby girl’s name, Hêvî Jiyan, by using letters î and
ê, which are not in Turkish alphabet. |
In
Kurdish, Hêvî means “hope” and Jiyan means “life.”
Kirkaya said when he received his daughter’s ID
card, he was so happy that she did not meet the same
fate as her mother. Though Kirkaya’s wife is named “Newroz,”
population-registry officials wrote her name without
using a “w.”
If there had been any problem with the name he
wanted for his child, Kırkaya said earlier, he was
thinking of leaving the name section on the ID card
empty.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
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 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.
Earlier this year, the government announced that it
was working on a raft of reforms expected to give
greater freedoms to the country's 20 million Kurds,
but it is yet to announce details.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
hurriyetdailynews com | Agencies
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