Language bar for Kurds proves that Turkey is unfit for the EU

In the light of the resumption of the "language court case” against 13 committee members of the Kurd-oriented HAK-PAR, the Party for Basic Rights and Freedoms (Hak ve Özgürklükler Partisi), on Friday in Ankara the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) and the International Centre for Human Rights of the Kurds (MK e.V.) accused the Turkish government of being "unfit for the EU”.

"A state which threatens its citizens with punishment, just because they greet members of their own people in their own language, is not conceivable in any European country except White Russia and Turkey”, says a joint statement of the two human rights organisations. Europe must not allow Turkey to refuse to acknowledge the existence of more than 15 million Kurds in south-east Anatolia, whose area covers about one quarter of the Turkish territory.

After almost 90 years of ethnic suppression and persecution, after the bloody Turkish-Kurdish civil war, which both the Turkish army and the extremist PKK conducted with terrorist methods, the factual recognition of the Kurds must be the indicator for the democratisation of Turkey. Both human rights organisations(deutsch!), the GfbV and the IMK e.V., call for the clear equal rights of both languages in public life, at offices, courts and in the educational system. They recommend that from the beginning of the next school year 2007 twin-language lessons in Kurdish and Turkish be introduced into all elementary schools in the Kurdish language area.

It is a scandal that the 13 Kurdish politicians appear today before the court today for the ninth time because they spoke Kurdish at a public meeting. According to the Turkish Party Law No. 2820, §81c this still counts as a breach of the law. The HAK-PAR sent out invitations cards to its first congress in Ankara on 4th January 2004 in Kurdish and Turkish. The welcoming speech in front of a largely Kurdish-speaking audience was held in Kurdish and Turkish. The HAK-PAR is working for a non-violent federalist and democratic solution to the Kurd question and distances itself expressly from the PKK.

As representative of both human rights organisations Irina Wießner is at present in Ankara, observing the court case on behalf of the GfbV and the IMK e.V. She speaks Turkish and can therefore follow the case independently.

Signed: Tilman Zülch, General Secretary of the GfbV -

SOCIETY FOR THREATENED PEOPLES

Abubekir Saydam, Organising Secretary of the IMK -

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE KURDS