ECHR Will Tackle Ban On Propaganda in Kurdish

Kurdish politician Miroglu was condemned for addressing his electorate in Kurdish, during his campaign for July 2007 general elections. The Strasbourg court declares his case as admissible. The ruling might force an amendment to law.

Erol Önderoğlu

Condemned at court for speaking in Kurdish during his electoral campaign for parliamentary elections of July 2007, Orhan Miroglu's case is regarded as admissible by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Miroglu stood elections as an independent candidate for MP in Mersin, where a migrant Kurdish population exists. He lost by a slight percentage. He was later condemned for violating law 298 on the general provisions on elections, which bans any language other than Turkish in electoral propaganda.

The court then withheld its ruling on grounds that Miroglu wouldn't commit any such actions within five years. The Kurdish politician regarded the ruling "as a ban on speaking his mother tongue, Kurdish for five years". Because the court withheld the ruling, Miroglu couldn't contest it in an upper court and decided to file an application to the ECHR.

The ECHR will now investigate the case on merits and Miroglu is hopeful that a positive ruling would require an amendment to law in Turkey, allowing propaganda in Kurdish.(EÖ/AGÜ)

Erol Önderoğlu

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