|
|
Osman Baydemir
|
An invitation Baydemir
sent to Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor Hüseyin Canan for the opening
reception of the sixth Diyarbakır Culture and Arts Festival included Turkish
and Kurdish letters, a violation of the law on the Turkish alphabet
according to prosecutors.
Interior Minister Aksu
had given the green light for an investigation on Nov. 28, 2006. Baydemir
had objected to the minister’s permission and appealed to the court to
overrule the decision to allow an investigation.
In his application for
an appeal, Baydemir had argued that in addition to the sentences in Turkish
and Kurdish, the invitation also included phrases in English and Armenian
and asserted that Kurdish had the same status as a foreign language as
English and Armenian.
Baydemir put forward
that under international conventions, the Constitution, the law on
municipalities and other provisions of Turkish legislation the usage of
Kurdish expressions next to Turkish was legally appropriate. The First
Chamber of the Council of State sent the file to the Diyarbakır Chief Public
Prosecutor’s Office after it rejected Baydemir’s appeal to nullify the
interior minister’s permission to start an investigation. |
