If you are planning to visit Turkey soon, keep in mind that singing a Kurdish song, choosing a Kurdish name for your child, or just saying a few Kurdish words is still unacceptable and might even constitute a crime.
Nudem Durak, 24, a musician who sings and teaches Kurdish folk songs at the Mem û Zîn Culture and Art Center in the Kurdish town of Cizre has recently been arrested and sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for “being a member of a terrorist organization.”
“All kinds of activities that Kurds engage in – cultural, linguistic or even personal ones – are used as evidence against them in their court files,” Rojhat Dilsiz, Durak’s lawyer said. “Even the telephone conversations that Durak had with fellow artists were used as evidence against her.”
Durak was first arrested in 2009 and spent about eight months in jail until her first trial, as a result of which she was released pending trial. But after the Supreme Court approved of her punishment, she was arrested again.
Turkey arrests two wedding singers for singing Kurdish songs
Sunday, 25 Feb 2018, 00:20
Wedding singers Ihsan Acet and Inayet Sarkic appeared before court along with Hikmet Akyol, father of the groom for singing Kurdish songs at a wedding. The court arrested all suspects for “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation”. The lawyers said that one of the singers was questioned about the songs they played in the wedding and the social media posts about Afrin.After a brief trial on Friday, all three were arrested and sent to prison.
According to Association France-Kurdistan, between 1925 and 1939, 1.5 million Kurds, a third of the population, were deported and massacred.
In 1930 the Turkish Minister of Justice declared, I won't hide my feelings. The Turk is the only lord, the only master of this country. Those who are not of pure Turkish origin will have only one right in Turkey: the right to be servants and slaves.
For many decades the Kurdish language was ignored and banned from public use and Turkish became the lingua franca for all citizens to speak. This way, the Turkish state sought to create a nation-state based on one language and attempted to eliminate the use of other languages, particularly Kurdish, through severe regulations and prohibitions. Firstly, this thesis traces the language planning policies in the 20th century which resulted in the invisibilization and denial of Kurdish through an attempted linguicide. Through decade long oppressions which resulted in mass killings, arrests, re-location of Kurds, monopolization of education in Turkish and eventually the legal ban on Kurdish in print and media raise questions about the survival of the language in the long run. Secondly, this thesis discusses the revitalization processes that have occurred in educational and political life since 2003 for the use of Kurdish. To some extent, the survival of Kurdish still remains in doubt, despite the re-introduction of Kurdish in schools and universities since 2010. In order to assess these recent developments, I compare the different roles and positions not only of the ruling government, but also of other political parties in promoting the use and dissemination of Kurdish as a second native language in Turkey.A new Roman-based script for writing the Turkish language was formally imposed in November 1927, and the use of the Arabic-based script was banned.While Kurdish persecution became more selective during World War II, largely restricted to Kurdish intellectuals, the overall policy in Turkey has remained ... "It is difficult to understand why in a country where terrorists have always been a minority compared with the great mass of population...all public freedoms should have
A 1924 mandate forbade Kurdish schools, organizations and publications. Even the words "Kurd" and "Kurdistan" were outlawed, making any written or spoken acknowledgement of their existence illegal.
According to Association France-Kurdistan, between 1925 and 1939, 1.5 million Kurds, a third of the population, were deported and massacred.
In 1930 the Turkish Minister of Justice declared, I won't hide my feelings. The Turk is the only lord, the only master of this country. Those who are not of pure Turkish origin will have only one right in Turkey: the right to be servants and slaves.
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/kurdish-repression-turkey
Young, Kurdish, and jailed in Turkey
24 May 2010 - Berivan Sayaca is an attractive, 15-year-old Kurdish girl with black, wavy hair who loves horse-riding and playing the guitar. She is also a convicted terrorist - serving an eight-year sentence in the high-security prison in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in Turkey. How she got there is a tale that could be ...
April 30, 2015
Nudem Durak sings and teaches Kurdish folk songs to kids in Turkey. She says her work honors her heritage, but the government recently imprisoned her for promoting Kurdish propaganda.
Turkey: Kurdish singer and musician Rojda arrested
24 February 2010
Kurdish artist Rojda was arrested for ‘propaganda for an illegal organisation’ because of singing a Kurdish song entitled ‘Heval Kamuran’. Rojda was released within a couple of hours after her statement had been taken, reported Antenna.tr and Supportkurds.org
According to Antenna.tr, Rojda was arrested at her home in the evening of 9 February 2010 and was taken to Beşiktaş Justice Hall. She was asked to make a formal deposition about a song entitled ‘Heval Kamuran’ which she sang at a festival in Diyarbakır organised by Diyarbakır Greater City Council.
A few days before her arrest, Selahattin Demirtas and Gültan Kisanak, co-chairs of pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) had emphasized the importance of protecting the mother tongue.
Six months in prison for playing Kurdish music
Politician Mahmut Alinak was handed down a six months prison sentence by the Kars Magistrate Criminal Court on the grounds of playing Kurdish music on his promotion van in the run-up to the elections. The Political Parties Law and the Election Law forbid political propaganda in any other language but Turkish in the run-up for elections. The government, however, has announced that in the scope of the Democratic Initiative, measures are in progress to allow addressing the Kurdish electorate in their mother tongue.
Ongoing cases in Diyarbakır
In 2009, Rojda had been invited to a meeting of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with musicians and artists about ‘democratic opening up’
Antenna.tr writes in their weekly newsletter that Rojda said, after being released, that she had ongoing cases in Diyarbakır over the songs she sang.
“As long as some laws are not amended we will continue being perceived as potential criminals. I always go and make depositions. This time I did not receive the summons thus I was arrested. The police did not question me. I only made a deposition to the court.”
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced that he has organising meetings with around 160 musicians and other artists about the Kurdish opening up process. Three meetings have been scheduled, the first of which took place on 20 February 2010. Those invited include Sezen Aksu, Ajda Pekkan, İbrahim Tatlıses, Orhan Gencebay, Yılmaz Erdoğan, Emel Sayın, Orhan Pamuk, and Yaşar Kemal.
‘Turkey’s Kurdish artist arrested after being invited by Erdogan’
Hundreds of children in Turkey's Kurdish south-east have been jailed for taking part in anti-government protests, and are treated no differently from adults.
Berivan Sayaca, 15, is held at a high-security prison in DiyarbakirBerivan Sayaca is an attractive, 15-year-old Kurdish girl with black, wavy hair who loves horse-riding and playing the guitar.
She is also a convicted terrorist - serving an eight-year sentence in the high-security prison in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in Turkey. How she got there is a tale that could be straight out of Kafka, that exposes one of modern Turkey's darkest sides.
The Turkish armed forces have been fighting insurgents of the PKK, or Kurdish Workers Party, for more than a quarter of a century.
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The inhabitants of those villages, and other displaced by the conflict, moved to places like Batman, a bleak city of dull concrete apartment blocks, surrounded by the featureless fields of the eastern Anatolian plateau.
Berivan Sayaca's family moved there in the late 1980s. But her father then moved the family to Istanbul in search of work. He worked as a construction labourer.
Mariam Sayaca travels every week to see her daughter in prison
Berivan Sayaca had to leave school and go to work in a factory at the age of 10. The family went back to Batman to stay with relatives last October.
On Friday 9 October, 2009, she went out to visit her aunt. She never came back.
Adult prison
The next the family heard was that she had been arrested by the police for taking part in a demonstration. These occur frequently in the overcrowded cities of the south-east.
Hostility towards the Turkish state runs very high in Kurdish communities, and people of all ages come out to protest, often throwing stones, and occasionally petrol bombs, at riot police, who respond in kind with tear gas and water cannon.
The only evidence police produced at Berivan Sayaca's trial four months later was a photograph of her, a scarf pulled across her face, apparently at the protest. She denies being part of it, or throwing stones.
Turkish society has a kind of paranoia about disintegration, secession. In the minds of many Turks a strong state, with a strong hand, is a must
Ergon Ozbudun, Legal scholar
But under Turkey's severe criminal code, that was enough to convict her of supporting a terrorist organisation.
More than 350 children between the ages of 13 and 17 are now serving sentences in adult prisons in Turkey on similar charges.
"It's not up to the judges, it's a question of the system," says defence lawyer Serkan Akbas.
He explained that in the eyes of the law, by attending a demonstration called by the PKK, a person is automatically treated as a PKK member.
All Kurdish protests are presumed by the state to be organised by the PKK. And membership of the PKK is a terrorist offence. Under the penal code terrorism offences apply even to young teenagers.
Mr Akbas says there is little scope to defend youngsters like Berivan Sayaca, nor can judges give less than the minimum sentences mandated by law - if they did they would almost certainly be reinstated on appeal.
"I don't feel like there's a trial going on," he says.
"I feel like there's a war going on, and these children, for protesting against the Turkish state, are being punished for being on one side."
Berivan's mother Mariam Sayaca is now staying in Batman, so she can make the two-hour journey every Monday morning to Diyarbakir for the half-hour meetings she is allowed with her daughter.
She says Berivan cries all the time, and begs to be freed. Neither of them can understand why she is there, in an adult prison surrounded by hardened criminals and PKK militants.
'Political will'
Finding officials to justify this practice is difficult.
Neither the police, the judges, nor the prosecutors involved in applying terrorist charges to children would talk to the BBC about it. They simply said they were bound by the law.
I feel like there's a war going on, and these children, for protesting against the Turkish state, are being punished for being on one side
Serkan Akbas, Lawyer for children
So what about the government? The governing party, the AKP, has promised a new beginning for the Kurdish minority, talking of a softer, more tolerant approach.
But it was the AKP which passed the severe anti-terrorism law five years ago.
"When we passed it there was a lot of unrest, with 17-year-olds throwing petrol bombs," says Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin.
"The law was intended to deal with them - but obviously it is wrong that it now catches much younger children who are only throwing stones."
But there is little sense of urgency among the politicians. The AKP accuses the opposition parties of blocking its efforts to change the law.
The opposition says that with its majority in parliament the government could easily pass a new law if it wanted to.
This lack of political will betrays the acute sensitivity of all politicians to nationalist sentiment in Turkey, which is easily whipped up and sometimes violent.
Failing to adhere to this official nomenclature is a crime. One Kurdish newspaper editor was jailed for 166 years this month for writing and activity judged to be supportive of the PKK.
A government minister had his nose broken at a soldier's funeral last month by a nationalist infuriated by what he saw as the government's soft line towards the Kurds.
'State of mind'
"Turkish society has a kind of paranoia about disintegration, secession," says Ergun Ozbudun, one of the country's most renowned legal scholars, who has long pushed for reform of the military-drafted constitution.
Anti-government feeling runs high in Turkey's Kurdish areas
"In the minds of many Turks a strong state, with a strong hand, is a must. In Europe and elsewhere in the Western world, the judiciary is primarily the protector and guarantor of individual rights and liberties.
"Here the picture is reversed, the judiciary is the protector and guarantor of the official ideology and the dominance of the state."
Poor and unschooled in the Byzantine ways of Turkey's judiciary, Mariam Sayaca has no idea how to go about campaigning for her daughter's release.
Nor how she can keep up the weekly visits to jail, with the family now split between their home in Istanbul and the house of their relatives in Batman.
"What if it was the prime minister's daughter?" she asks, clutching a photograph of her child.
"Could his wife sleep at night? Would she accept this situation?"
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Former British soldier held in Turkey over 'pro-Kurdish propaganda'
Joe Robinson arrested on holiday in Turkey accused of posting photos on Facebook wearing Kurdish militia uniform
A former British soldier who fought against Islamic State in Syria has been arrested with his girlfriend and her mother on holiday in Turkey after being accused of posting pro-Kurdish propaganda on Facebook.
Joe Robinson, 24, from Accrington, Lancashire, was on holiday in the town of Didim, about 62 miles (100km) north of Bodrum, south-west Turkey, when police raided the resort in which he was staying with his Bulgarian girlfriend and her mother.
Mira Rojkan, who has since been released, said police swooped as the three relaxed on the beach, confiscating their mobile phones, computers and other digital material before taking them away for interrogation.
After taking them to a local police station for questioning, Turkish authorities released Rojkan, a law student at the University of Leeds, and her mother, but have accused Robinson with “being a member of a terrorist organisation”, according to Rojkan.
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In a text message to the Guardian on Friday, Rojkan confirmed that her boyfriend is in prison. “It was just awful. They said someone had sent them an email saying we were terrorists about to do something in Turkey. They wouldn’t say who it was from. It is absolute nonsense. They arrested us on the beach while we were vacationing with my mother.”
Rojkan, who lives in Leeds with Robinson, ended the short conversation explaining that she needed to keep her phone free.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are aware of the detention of a British national in Turkey and have requested consular access.”
Robinson, who toured Afghanistan with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment in 2012, travelled to Syria two years ago and served as a combat medic alongside the People’s Protection Units of Syrian Kurdistan (YPG) against Isis militants during one of the civil war’s bloodiest periods.
It is believed he stands accused of sharing photographs of himself wearing a YPG uniform and other material relating to the Kurdish militia.
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Turkey has long argued that the US-backed YPG is a terrorist organisation affiliated with its own Kurdish insurgent group, the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state for decades. The YPG denies any affiliation to the PKK.
Mark Campbell, a Kurdish rights campaigner and co-chair of the Kurdish Solidarity Campaign, said: “Unfortunately, Joe has gone on holiday to Turkey not realising the kind of state it has now become.
“Turkey continues to criminalise the Kurdish question and has jailed tens of thousands of Kurdish people, including elected MPs and mayors, simply for peacefully campaigning for Kurdish rights.”
Robinson travelled to Syria in November 2015 after growing increasingly incensed by both Isis’s gory propaganda videos and what he saw as Britain’s inaction in Syria. He told his family he was joining the French Foreign Legion and returned to the UK after five months.
But upon landing at Manchester airport, he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences. After spending 10 months on police bail, all charges were dropped. After his release : “I’m just happy that the restrictions placed on me have been dropped and that I can finally move on with my life.
“I went to Syria to fight against terrorism and to protect the civilians caught up in the fighting who have had to endure the most horrendous experiences and living conditions imaginable.
“I love my country, I am ex-military and served my country in the Afghanistan conflict, but to be accused of terrorism by the same country I fought for for simply trying to help those in need has been extremely harrowing and made me think twice about the morals of the government in the UK.”
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