Iraqi Kurds build factories, new roads

Turkish state mobilizes against Kurdish names
AFP
June 4, 2002

When Tufan Akcan, a Turkish father from Ardahan in north-eastern Turkey, named his baby after his favorite singer, little did he expect that he could be charged with attempting sabotage against the state. What Akcan, a 26-year-old construction worker, had done wrong in the eyes of the state was to choose a Kurdish name for his daughter: Berivan, which means milkmaid.

The name also happens to be the name of a very popular television serial in which one of the great stars of Turkish music, Sibel Can, plays the role of a young Kurdish woman.

Like millions of other Turks, Tufan Akcan and his wife are Sibel Can fans, never missing an episode of Berivan.

Therefore they thought nothing of it when they went to register their daughter with this name in the mayor's office.

A state prosecutor, however, sensed an anti-Turkish message in this Kurdish name and Akcan suddenly found himself suspected of terrorism and support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

In his charges against Akcan, the state prosecutor based his arguments on the draconian anti-terror law that was adopted to fight against the PKK, that led an armed struggle for 15 years for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Anatolia.

Akcan's fate is a sign that for many months now, the Turkish authorities have been nervous: they believe that the PKK has encouraged its sympathizers to come out and defy the state by giving their kids Kurdish names.

Ankara suspects the PKK, which has rebaptised itself as Congress for Freedom and Democracy to Kurdistan (KADEK), would lead such a campaign for freedom of expression and recognition of cultural rights to the Kurds.

The politicization of first names has put the Turkish authorities in a delicate situation. If they do not do anything, they will give an upper hand to the PKK. If it uses its anti-terror law to the full they risk making themselves look ridiculous.

As a case in point Berivan's father does not speak a word of Kurdish and his family comes from neighboring Georgia. He was thus puzzled when he was charged by the prosecutor.

"I would never think that such a thing could happen", he told the Hurriyet daily newspaper. He asked the judge how millions of Turks could watch the television serial if the name Berivan was prohibited.

Even the Turkish public radio plays songs from the soundtrack of the serial, sung by Sibel Can, titled Berivan. The director of the serial, which is broadcast by the private TV channel Kanal-D, a channel which has come under no suspicion for its political leanings, is lost for an explanation.

Akcan is not the only one to find himself in trouble recently. In Ardahan, another parent was convicted by the state prosecutor for having named his kids Rojin (sunny) et Rohjan (sunset).

In Izmir in western Turkey, Kurdish sources say, police conducted night raids in the homes of 11 families that had given their children Kurdish names. An investigation was initiated against nine of the parents, on suspicion of conducting propaganda for a terrorist organization.

However, the Turkish courts do not systematically pursue the allegations. The state security court of Erzurum, competent in cases of political crime, has refused to follow up the case against Akcan and the other parent from Ardahan.

A court in Dicle, in the Kurdish south-east of the country, has also refused to follow up charges against seven families who had in total 23 kids holding Kurdish first names. 

The case has attracted all the more attention as the judge herself had a Kurdish first name: Sirvan, a name which, according to Turkish authorities, is a nom de guerre for PKK members.
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