Where an alphabet will put you in Jail

Not much has changed in Turkey. This week, the mayor of the largest Kurdish city in Turkey went on trial for publishing a children’s storybook in the Kurdish language. Reuters reports:

A mayor in the southeast of the country went on trial on Friday for publishing a storybook in the Turkish and Kurdish languages, in a case critics say highlights continued opposition to minority rights in Turkey

…

Prosecutors are seeking a jail sentence of up to three years for Baydemir and three other defendants in the case

Sadly, charges like these are actually nothing new for Mayor Osman Baydemir, or other public Kurdish officials in positions like him. He and several others already have pending charges against them for various other expressions of speech; 56 mayors including Mr. Baydemir were charged with writing a letter to the Danish prime minister requesting him not to shut down a Kurdish broadcast station in Denmark after being pressured by Turkey to take it off the air. The Danish PM Rasmussen found it “shocking” as we all should.

Mr. Baydemir also sparked controversy last year for sending New Year’s cards to the Turkish PM, cabinet ministers and members of parliament that simply said, “Happy New Year” in Kurdish. Odd by any standards, his kind gesture was met with charges by Turkish state prosecutors.

While many claim Turkey has made some changes to their legal system, charges like these prove otherwise. While some minimal broadcasts in the Kurdish language now air during odd hours in uncommon dialects following a law passed only three years ago, the little reform has been criticized as being insincere and rather cosmetic.

Charges against Mr. Baydemir are a result of existing Turkish laws requiring state agencies, civic groups and private institutions to use Turkish letters, which do not include the w, x, q to name a just few letters of the Kurdish language.

Indeed, not much has changed. Those who know a little about Turkey can hardly forget when, in 1991, the former parliamentarian and Nobel-peace prize nominee, Leyla Zana*, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for speaking Kurdish in the Turkish parliament.

Sad world when an alphabet will put you in jail…

*Short Documentary about Leyla Zana can be watched here:

part one

part two

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