Turkey's army hints at prosecuting deputy over Kurdish speech

February 27, 2009 - 19:25 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's powerful military suggested on Friday that prosecutors should take action against a Kurdish politician who broke the law by delivering a speech in the Kurdish language in parliament.



Kurds have long suffered official discrimination, including a ban on the public use of their language. In 1991, Leyla Zana, a Kurdish politician, caused uproar in parliament when she attempted to take her oath in Kurdish. Her immunity was stripped and she served 10 years in prison on other charges.



On Tuesday, Turkey's state television cut off live broadcasting when another politician, Ahmet Turk, addressed members of his Democratic Society Party (DTP) in Kurdish.



The ruling AK Party and nationalists have called Turk's speech a "provocation". On Friday, the military, which has a long history of intervening in Turkish politics and is fighting PKK militants in the south-east, weighed in.



"Turkey is a country with a rule of law. Everybody has to act in line with the constitution and its laws. It is natural for the judiciary to take steps against those who exceed the boundaries of the law," General Metin Gurak, a military spokesman, told a weekly news conference.



As a member of parliament, Turk has immunity from prosecution. Parliament would have to strip him of this before he could face any court case. Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan has said he did not plan to open a disciplinary case.



The DTP, which has 21 members in parliament, faces closure by the Constitutional Court on charges it has links to the PKK.



Analysts have said Turk's speech was aimed at voters. Turkey holds municipal elections on March 29, and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party is aggressively campaigning to win votes from the DTP in the Kurdish southeast of the country.



Erdogan has won the respect of many Kurds by using Kurdish words in rallies, and the launch of a Kurdish state channel in January was seen as a breakthrough in expanding Kurdish rights, Reuters reported.
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