Interview with Abdullah Demirbas

http://www.gopetition.com/online/33128.html

Abdullah Demirbas' letter from prison:

Dear Sir/Madam,

First of all I would like to tell you about my health problems that really give me unbearable pain in my legs which this illness called (deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and need to be controlled by my doctor all the time. If I will not be controlled by the doctor that it may cause bad illness while I am in the jail."


As you may know I have been arrested and jailed with another 23 members of the BDP political party including 7 mayors. The Turkish state have started a new war against the civilian Kurdish political movement in 11 provinces from Diyarbakir and neighboring cities to İstanbul and İzmir.

Homes of prominent DTP (the Kurdish party recently banned by the Constitutional Court) leaders houses were broken into 5 a.m. and around 60 party members, including mayors of Kurdish provinces and districts and the human rights association chairperson in Diyarbakir were arrested. Also these party members and mayors brought up to court building with handcuffs on their hands. All the media were recording and taking pictures of this shameful scene. I would like to point out an important fact to you that those party members never use a gun or never connected with the violence acts. All we have been trying to do to solve the Kurdish problem in a democratic ways.

The Turkish court has charged 23 Kurdish officials, including eight mayors. This was the third operation during this year. More than 100 people have already been charged in the investigation led by the chief prosecutor’s office in Diyarbakir. 54 party members got arrested and jailed on the March 2009.

Unfortunately they haven’t brought up the court or Turkish Court hasn’t opened a case against these jailed party members. As you can see that the government categorically rejects dialogue with the Kurdish movement. The Kurdish question cannot be resolved without recognizing the will of the Kurdish people and holding dialogue with its interlocutors. I believe that Turkish government refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as adistinct minority.

I believe that Turkish government refuses to recognize its Kurdish population asadistinctminority. The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, has praised Turkish Prime Minister R. T. Erdogan’s efforts to end the conflict. His so-called democratic initiative. But as you see the government instead of making dialogue with the Kurdish, they make these operations. The Turkish Government cannot endure the Kurdish people and their party as a free decision so this operation is against the Kurdish free volition and they want to break the Kurdish free volition.

As I mentioned above that I also have a seriously bad medical condition which I have to be under the doctor control all the time. Therefore I cannot stay in the jail with any conditions. Even Turkish law agreed that it was inappropriate for me to stay in the jail. But still they put me in jail with (POLITICAL) reasons.

Therefore, I kindly wish from you dear friends;

• We are waiting considerably your quick reaction for this unjustice act,
• If you take this act and shared in international arena which you connected with society, associations and etc.. and If you request from them to respond about our situation that we will be really appriciated,
• I hope to see you soon in a near future together in our free live days. All best wishes to you,

Yours Sincerely.

Abdullah Demirbas
Mayor of Sur Municipality Diyarbakir

info below if from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Demirbaş

Abdullah Demirbaş (born 1966, Diyarbakir, Turkey) is mayor of the municipality of Sur in the city of Diyarbakir, Southeast Turkey, of the former Democratic Society Party (DTP).
After graduating in sociology at Firat University in Elazig, Abdullah Demirbas worked as a philosophy teacher from 1987 to 2007, contributing to setting up the Mardin Branch of the Turkish Union of Teachers. [1]
When he was elected as Mayor of Sur in 2004, he made a commitment to his electorate to serve them in their own languages. [2] In 2007 he was removed from his functions, together with the entire municipal council, for using the Kurdish language in official business. [3] He was accused of the misuse of municipal resources, having printed a children’s book and tourist brochures in Kurdish. [4] The Congress of the Council of Europe took up his case in its 2007 report and Recommendation 229 on Local Democracy in Turkey. [5] [6]

In the Turkish local elections in March 2009, he was re-elected with a stronger majority. However, the prosecutions against him continued and in May 2009 he was sentenced to 2 years in jail for language crimes. [7]
He is a campaigner for minority languages and has called on Turkey to ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. [8]
His latest project - "A Story for each night and every house is a School" - aims to publish 365 stories for children in Kurdish and other minority languages. [9] A court case against him concerning this project was dropped in September 2009. [10]
On 24 December 2009 he was detained as part of a widespread crackdown against members of the former DTP party. On 30 December he issued an open letter from prison pleading for medical treatment and drawing attention to the political nature of his arrest. [11]
[edit]References

^ "Abdullah Demirbas". World Conference on City Diplomacy. 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
^ "Dismissed Turkish Mayor Continues Quest to Make Kurdish Language Official". Kurdish Academy. 2008-07-30. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
^ "Multilingualism as a Separatist Crime". Quantara. 2007. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
^ "Minority Rules". New York Times. 2008-02-17. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
^ "Local Democracy in Turkey". Congress of the Council of Europe. 2007-09-18. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
^ "Recommendation 229 - Local Democracy in Turkey". Congress of the Council of Europe. 2007-11-21. Retrieved 2009-12-31.
^ "Kurdish mayor Abdullah Demirbas sentenced to jail". Transnational Middle East Observer. 2009-05-05. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
^ "Former Kurdish mayor Demirbas blames Turkey for everything". Kurd Net. 2009-01-19. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
^ "Transforming Every House into a School". Kurdish Herald. July 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
^ "No Trial for Teaching Kurdish". Bianet. 2009-09-11. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
^ "Open letter of Abdullah Demirbas". United States of Kurdistan. 2009-12-30. Retrieved 2009-12-31.

The Errorist

This made me laugh so hard, but at the core its very serious:
Click on the link and it will take you to a website where you can upload a picture of yourself sticking out your tongue. I think its one of the most appropriate responses to the absurd treatment of language I've ever come across.




The ERRORIST

Our medium is our message!
errorist wanted

„With a single glance at the underside of my tongue the teacher would control if I had spoken the forbidden language at home. When I was a child I still spoke my native tongue“ H.K., Diyarbakir

To stick out your tongue is more than a universal sign of disobedience.
The Errorist project is centred on the search for failures. Its art project „qwx - show ur lingua“ aims to counter the politics which homogenise the subjectivity of people living within the boundaries of Turkey, people who have a variety of ethnic and cultural identities. By prompting people to upload images of their tongues sticking out „qwx - show ur lingua“ aims to create a space of resistance.

Within Turkish society subjects who resist and who live in opposition to the politics of homogenisation are regarded as traitors and are demonised by the Turkish state and by society at large. This demonization is not only a recourse to a mythical being to shape the political and historical perception of the other but also a symbol embedded into everyday language that invokes the unknown, the threatening, and the unintelligible.

Kurds are still being FINED for speaking Kurdish.

"How can language be an enemy?" Someone once said to me. "I remember I was sent away to boarding school in Turkey, and I went to call my mother on a payphone in the school. I was speaking to her in Kurdish, she didn't speak Turkish... suddenly the principal was walking by, and when he heard me speaking Kurdish, he just took the phone and hung it up. 'You cannot speak that language in this school.' he told me. Then he walked away. And I was standing there, tears just went down my face, because there was no way I could talk to my mother. But at that moment for the first time I understood that I was Kurdish. Looking back, I thank that man because he taught me WHO I AM, and that I am NOT A TURK."

So many Turks have told me the Kurdish language is not illegal in Turkey. So many Americans can't even imagine what it would be like to live in a country where your own language is against the law. Even today people are attacked in various ways for speaking their language. The following letter was written by head of the Human Rights Association in Turkey. I discovered it at KURDISH ASPECT:


We are waiting for the answer to the question: Isn’t Kurdish free in this country?

Human Rights Association

Although Anatolia is a multi-linguistic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious community, practices in Turkey reject multi-culturalism and multi-linguist and every passing day, bans are given legitimacy. Despite the fact that law no 2932 banning Kurdish language was abolished in 1991, practices that are against the law and the legislation are still continuing.

On May 23, each of the two Kurdish citizens in a leisure park in Konya were imposed a fine of 62 YTL on the allegation that they were “making noise” speaking in Kurdish on the mobile phone with their families.

A university student in Erzurum was detained because he was reading the daily paper “Azadiya Welat”, and [therefore] he was dismissed de-facto from school. The school and dormitory administrations accompanied him when he was being discharged –in the format of lynching- from the dormitory; and he was told that he could no longer accommodate himself in the town, so he should leave immediately.

In many prisons in Diyarbakır and the region, delivery of the Kurdish paper “Azadiya Welat” by the prison administration too many inmates is on arbitrary basis. The right of these citizens for information has been confiscated and also, “Freedom of Press” enshrined in article 3 of Press Law no 5187 published in the Official Gazette of 24 June 2004, has been clearly violated.

Article 3 of the Press Law says “The Press is free. This freedom encompasses right to have access to, disseminate, criticize, interpret information and create works.” which clearly indicates that distribution of the paper can not be prevented.

Along with the EU process, political representatives in our country continuously have been saying that many legislative amendments have taken place; however, in the recent years, almost everyday, rights have been stepped on. Speaking Kurdish language, reading a Kurdish paper, publishing a Kurdish paper, news in Kurdish are practices that are continuously curbed.

Article 22 of the Press law entitled, “Prevention, Destruction and Distortion of Printed works” says “…will be given imprisonment penalty up to one year and imposed heavy fine from one to five billion Liras.”

However, for so long now, access to Kurdish daily paper “Azadiya Welat” from within many prisons in Turkey is being prevented; and no investigations have been launched against those who perpetrate these arbitrary practices, and people are being deprived from having access to information and news in their mother tongues.

In such a case, the grievance is both for the reader and the paper; and the legitimate rights of (both real and legal) persons are being violated.

Article 28 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey regulates Freedom of Press. It says,– “The press is free, and shall not be censored. The establishment of a printing house shall not be subject to prior permission and to the deposit of a financial guarantee. The State shall take the necessary measures to ensure the freedom of the press and freedom of information.”

Again it is the same article, laying down the conditions applicable to prohibition. In fact, it is incomprehensible that prevention is made without the decision of a judge.

Article 29 of the Constitution says that the publication of periodicals or non-periodicals shall not be subject to prior authorization but only to notification.
The editor and honorary owner of Azadiya Welat -Vedat Kurşun- has been kept under arrest for quite a long time due to the news he prepared. At the end of the trial, he was imprisoned for a term of 3 years 11 months for making the propaganda of the organization via the news he prepared.

We know it very well that the penalty imposed on Kurşun, editor and honorary owner of Azadiya Welat, being the only daily printed in Kurdish language in Turkey, has actually been imposed on the Kurdish language. We also know it very well that dismissal of students from universities, their dormitories as well as the prevention of Kurdish papers into prisons, are again stemming from the Kurdish language.

We consider it a severe human right violation that access to information is curbed and demand that the restrictions on the Kurdish language be immediately eliminated; thereby, requirements stemming from being a democratic country be fulfilled.

Head of Branch
Muharrem ERBEY, Attorney at Law

HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION
Ali Emiri 1.Sok. Yılmaz 2004 Apt. No: 1/3 Yenişehir/ DİYARBAKIR Tel : 0.412. 223 30 33- 229 58 66
Faks: 0.412. 223 57 37 E-mail: diyarbakir@ihd.org.tr