Ahmet Turk, the leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party or DTP, makes a speech in Kurdish in open defiance of Turkish laws, as he addresses his party members at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009. Ahmet Turk’s speech in Kurdish could be used by a prosecutor as new evidence to shut down the party on charges of alleged ties to Kurdish rebels. (AP Photo)
Despite the initial media hype, i don’t see Mr. Türk’s Kurdish speaking in the Turkish parliament as a crisis or scandalous act. Interested parties will speak out, nationalist rhetorics and cliches will be employed, there will be a great fuss momentarily but most know that something has already changed. In 1980, Turkish states officially denied the existence of a language called Kurdish, and now there is already a state TV channel in Kurdish…
Di vé karé de şaşiyek heye
Something to be amazed | Di vé karé de şaşiyek heye. Let’s see if other parliaments allow a speech to be delivered in another language. Even at the Council Of Europe (47 member states in 2008) the two sole “official languages” are English and French. German is only a “working language” along with Italian and Russian. When applying for a job at EU only English and French are obligatory. Germans however want to keep order at the home front. Article 22 of the German constitution already states that the nation’s capital shall be Berlin, and the flag shall be black, red and gold, but hitherto has made no reference to the German language. Despite Merkel’s reservations, her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at their recent party conference in Stuttgart overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on the German parliament to enshrine the German language in the constitution. I guess as a preemptive measure for a speech in Turkish at the the German Bundestag, the national parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany. (insert a wink here).
Kurdish in Parliament
Yesterday, at a parliamentary meeting of his party, Democratic Society Party (DTP) leader Ahmet Türk delivered a section of his speech to DTP members in Kurdish.
Türk’s speech in Kurdish: election strategy or step forward?
A new controversy was sparked in Turkey on Tuesday when pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) leader Ahmet Türk addressed lawmakers in Kurdish during his parliamentary group meeting.
Turkish politician defies law with Kurdish speech | World news | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle
Parliament: The Last Line of Defense
While rules about linguistic diversity are softening in Turkey as a whole — cynics would say as a ploy to get votes in the upcoming elections – allowing a TV station broadcasting in Kurdish, Kurdish taught as a bona fide language at a university, and even cell phones programmed in Kurdish, it appears the Turkish Parliament (and political system) are a last unbreachable line of defense. Mayors have been hauled to court for commmunicating with their constituents in Turkish, their speeches muzzled, their posters torn down. And now this…
Politician tests ethnic tolerance in Turkey
An ethnic Kurdish politician defied Turkish law yesterday (24 February) by giving a speech in his native Kurdish in parliament. The live broadcast was immediately cut off, but the incident sparked a flurry of reactions, highlighting limits to ethnic tolerance in the EU candidate country.
Sabotage of TRT 6
It is quite evident that there are no innocent reasons behind Ahmet Türk delivering his speech in Kurdish while addressing his fellow DTP members yesterday in Parliament.
Ahmet Türk but a Kurd
The world economic crisis buzzes on, but Turkey, in the meantime, is the production center of daily crises.
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