content tagged with Linguistic Rights

When I saw that “Newroz Park” has been replaced by “Nevruz Park”, its Turkish equivalent, even in the digital signboards of busses, I said to myself, “Indeed, one can apparently be anything in Turkey, but a Kurd.”

Şerefxan Cizîrî, the Spokesperson for the Kurdish Language Platform, has said, “We need to bring the problems about language to the agenda of politics. Mother language must be guaranteed by the Constitution.”

A series of rallies will be held in Turkey’s three Kurdish-majority eastern provinces with the slogans “Make Kurdish language the official and education language in Turkey” and “May the 21st century be the century of Kurdish language.”

Below follows the English translation of the Turkish version of what DTP politician Ahmet Türk said at his party group meeting in parliament in Kurdish.

Local authorities in Diyarbakir have found a creative means of criticising the ban on Kurdish: They have added Chinese to their repertoire and are awaiting reactions…

According to Laz expert Sapan, the language is at a critical point where it may be lost. The government is also to blaim for assimilation policies.

The Greek population is dwindling, and the Armenian and Ladino languages have also suffered from assimilation policies over the last decades. New generations may not speak the languages of their grandparents anymore.

Publisher Mehdi Tanrikulu has been sentenced to five months imprisonment for writing a petititon in Kurdish and for speaking Kurdish in court. He will appeal against the sentence.