Administrative Court Does Not Try Multilingualism

The 2nd Administrative Court in Diyarbakir has refused to follow the demand of the Governor’s Office to stop the “multilingual services” of the Sur municipality in Diyarbakir.

Demirbas: My removal not lawful 

Abdulla Demirbas, the former mayor of the Sur municipality, was dismissed from his office by the State Council, following the appeal by the Ministry of the Interior, which had claimed that “multilingual services violate the constitution”.

Demirbas has interpreted the refusal of the administrative court as a vindication of his cause, saying, “This decision is proof that the case which ended in my removal from office was not based on the law.”

He added, “This is a scandal of procedure, and a sign that the government and the judiciary act arbitrarily. If the case had gone to another court before the State Council, it would have emerged that there was no legal basis to remove me from office.”

Government biased towards DTP municipalities

Demirbas told bianet that he did not believe he would be allowed to return to office: “The case will probably go to the European Court of Human Rights and it will become clear there that a legal mistake was made.”

The Diyarbakir 2^nd Adminstrative Court acknowledged that the Sur municipal council had not presented its concept of multilingual municipal services to the governor for approval, but only to the Greater Diyarbakir Municipal Mayor’s Office. The court argued, however, that there was no clear and obligatory administrative process that was supposed to be followed, and thus dismissed the case.

Demirbas emphasised that the court decision was not definitive, saying, “This decision shows the partisan approach which the government has towards local authorities ruled by the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and is a proof of the intolerant attitude towards Kurdish.”

Tried but acquitted for an article 

Demirbas had presented an article entitled “Local Authorities in the Light of Multilingual Municipal Services” at the European Social Forum. Based on this article, the municipality had started multilingual services at the beginning of this year.

The 8^th Chamber of the State Council decreed on 15 June that Demirbas should be dismissed from office and the municipal council be dissolved for offering services in languages other than Turkish, such as Kurdish and Arabic.

In a survey of the municipal area, it had been ascertained that 24 percent of the population spoke Turkish, 72 percent Kurdish, 4 percent Arabic and 3 percent Syriac and Armenian. As a result, the municipality decided to offer services in different languages.

Demirbas’s article had landed him in the 4^th Heavy Penal Court in Diyarbakir for “spreading propaganda of a terrorist organisation or its aims”, but he was acquitted on 19 September 2006.

The European Council recently demanded that municipal services in languages other than Turkish be allowed and that local authorities be protected from political and judiciary pressures. (EÜ/AG)