.Turkish politician defies law with Kurdish speech
ISTANBUL (AP) - A politician stirred the debate about minority rights in Turkey when he spoke Kurdish in Parliament on Tuesday, violating laws that bar the language in official settings.
State-run television immediately cut off the live broadcast of legislator Ahmet Turk as he spoke in his native tongue, ostensibly to celebrate UNESCO world languages week. But his real aim was to challenge the long-standing Turkish policy toward its restive Kurdish population, a suppression of rights that only began to ease in recent years.
"Kurds have long been oppressed because they did not know any other language," Turk said. "I promised myself that I would speak in my mother tongue at an official meeting one day."
Kurdish lawmakers gave Turk, their leader, a standing ovation.
Turkey's prime minister himself spoke a few words in Kurdish at a campaign rally over the weekend, but fears of national division prevent any concerted effort to repeal the laws.
Turkey is caught between the long-held suspicion that outsiders and minorities can threaten state unity, and its moves toward the kind of Western-style democracy that would consider a language ban an affront to human rights.
Kurdish was banned in Turkey until 1991, and today it is barred in schools, parliament and other official settings on the grounds that it would divide the country along ethnic lines. Kurds, who are distantly related to Iranians, make up about a fifth of Turkey's more than 70 million people.
"The official language is Turkish," Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said after Turk spoke. "This meeting should have been conducted in Turkish."
Tuesday's incident could be used as evidence in a case to shut down the party of Kurdish lawmakers on charges of having ties to Kurdish guerrillas. Also, private NTV television reported that prosecutors launched an investigation of Turk himself, though it was not clear whether he would face charges.
Turkey's power structures could be at odds over what course to take. The Islamic-oriented government has often sparred with secular circles backed by the judiciary and the military.
In a similar incident in 1991, a Kurdish lawmaker took the oath in parliament in Kurdish. Leyla Zana was later stripped of her immunity, prosecuted on charges of separatism and links to the rebels and served a decade in prison along with three other Kurdish legislators.
But heavy-handed action by the state this time could backfire, exposing it to accusations of authoritarian behavior and further alienating Kurds ahead of local elections on March 29.
Turk's speech was also a vote-getting stunt, as the elections will determine whether his Democratic Society Party can keep southeastern strongholds in the face of an aggressive campaign from the governing party.
Speaking in Kurdish, Turk described how he was jailed during a 1980 military coup and was beaten for speaking Kurdish to visiting relatives who knew no other language.
He also commented on the Kurdish spoken by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a campaign rally on Saturday in Diyarbakir, the main city in the mostly Kurdish southeast.
"When (Kurdish party) members salute someone in their own language, they are prosecuted or investigated. When a mayor speaks to his people in their own language, he is prosecuted," Turk said. "But when the prime minister speaks Kurdish, nobody says anything. We don't think this is right. This is a two-faced approached."
Erdogan had referred to Turkey's first 24-hour Kurdish-language television, launched Jan. 1. At the rally, and on the day of the TRT6 channel's inauguration, Erdogan said in Kurdish: "May TRT6 be beneficial."
Some commentators said the prime minister had broken the law, but prosecutors did not launch a probe.
Erdogan's efforts to court Kurdish support with economic aid and promises of more freedom has sapped some of the support for Turk's party, which has 21 legislators in the 550-seat parliament.
The European Union, for which Turkey is a candidate, has pushed the country for more Kurdish rights.
But the language issue has also come up in EU member Spain, where rules in the national parliament require lawmakers to speak Spanish. A few years ago, a Catalan nationalist spoke Catalan, and the speaker reprimanded him.
Such cases, however, are rare.
MyWay
State-run television immediately cut off the live broadcast of legislator Ahmet Turk as he spoke in his native tongue, ostensibly to celebrate UNESCO world languages week. But his real aim was to challenge the long-standing Turkish policy toward its restive Kurdish population, a suppression of rights that only began to ease in recent years.
"Kurds have long been oppressed because they did not know any other language," Turk said. "I promised myself that I would speak in my mother tongue at an official meeting one day."
Kurdish lawmakers gave Turk, their leader, a standing ovation.
Turkey's prime minister himself spoke a few words in Kurdish at a campaign rally over the weekend, but fears of national division prevent any concerted effort to repeal the laws.
Turkey is caught between the long-held suspicion that outsiders and minorities can threaten state unity, and its moves toward the kind of Western-style democracy that would consider a language ban an affront to human rights.
Kurdish was banned in Turkey until 1991, and today it is barred in schools, parliament and other official settings on the grounds that it would divide the country along ethnic lines. Kurds, who are distantly related to Iranians, make up about a fifth of Turkey's more than 70 million people.
"The official language is Turkish," Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan said after Turk spoke. "This meeting should have been conducted in Turkish."
Tuesday's incident could be used as evidence in a case to shut down the party of Kurdish lawmakers on charges of having ties to Kurdish guerrillas. Also, private NTV television reported that prosecutors launched an investigation of Turk himself, though it was not clear whether he would face charges.
Turkey's power structures could be at odds over what course to take. The Islamic-oriented government has often sparred with secular circles backed by the judiciary and the military.
In a similar incident in 1991, a Kurdish lawmaker took the oath in parliament in Kurdish. Leyla Zana was later stripped of her immunity, prosecuted on charges of separatism and links to the rebels and served a decade in prison along with three other Kurdish legislators.
But heavy-handed action by the state this time could backfire, exposing it to accusations of authoritarian behavior and further alienating Kurds ahead of local elections on March 29.
Turk's speech was also a vote-getting stunt, as the elections will determine whether his Democratic Society Party can keep southeastern strongholds in the face of an aggressive campaign from the governing party.
Speaking in Kurdish, Turk described how he was jailed during a 1980 military coup and was beaten for speaking Kurdish to visiting relatives who knew no other language.
He also commented on the Kurdish spoken by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a campaign rally on Saturday in Diyarbakir, the main city in the mostly Kurdish southeast.
"When (Kurdish party) members salute someone in their own language, they are prosecuted or investigated. When a mayor speaks to his people in their own language, he is prosecuted," Turk said. "But when the prime minister speaks Kurdish, nobody says anything. We don't think this is right. This is a two-faced approached."
Erdogan had referred to Turkey's first 24-hour Kurdish-language television, launched Jan. 1. At the rally, and on the day of the TRT6 channel's inauguration, Erdogan said in Kurdish: "May TRT6 be beneficial."
Some commentators said the prime minister had broken the law, but prosecutors did not launch a probe.
Erdogan's efforts to court Kurdish support with economic aid and promises of more freedom has sapped some of the support for Turk's party, which has 21 legislators in the 550-seat parliament.
The European Union, for which Turkey is a candidate, has pushed the country for more Kurdish rights.
But the language issue has also come up in EU member Spain, where rules in the national parliament require lawmakers to speak Spanish. A few years ago, a Catalan nationalist spoke Catalan, and the speaker reprimanded him.
Such cases, however, are rare.
MyWay
posted by madtom at 6:24 PM
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