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Appeal to the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008
after the attacks of Turkish chauvinists
22.10.2008
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Appeal to the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008 after the
attacks of Turkish chauvinists on the third largest
language group of the Near East
October
22, 2008
Göttingen/Frankfurt, — After the attacks of
Turkish chauvinists on the third largest language
group of the Near East the GfbV appeals to the Book
Fair Make Kurdistan, the country with 40 million
Kurdish speakers, and its writers the Guest of
Honour in 2011!
Turkish nationalist groups are continuing on German
soil the merciless suppression and persecution of
the Kurdish language,www.ekurd.net
literature,
institutions, societies and democratic parties which
have been practised since 1919. Following the call
of the Turkish TV station Ulusal TV the three
Kurdish stands at the Frankfurt Book Fair were
attacked, the staff were insulted and threatened.
One of the stands was partially destroyed.
Unfortunately the police arrived too late. |
Kurdistan |
The General Secretary of the Society for Threatened
Peoples (GfbV), Tilman Zülch, appealed to the Book
Fair after China (2009) and Argentina (2010) to make
Kurdistan in the year 2011 the Guest of Honour of
the Book Fair. This would mean an honour and
recognition for Kurdish literature, which is not
only interesting but growing rapidly. The GfbV has
published many books and documentaries on the
Kurdish question. "We cannot understand that the
Kurdish language, which is after Arabic and Turkish
the third largest language of the Near East, is to
be discriminated”, said Zülch.
Millions of children in Turkey are against the
wishes of their parents taught at school only in
Turkish. While in Catalonia and in the Basque
country, in South Tyrol, in Wales, in North and
South Schleswig and many other parts of Europe
children are taught in the regional languages,www.ekurd.net
but in Turkey the mere
mention of the terms "Kurdistan”, the "Kurds” and
"Kurdish” means persecution. This permanent
witch-hunt leads to such extremes as the
confiscation of the Karl May book "Durchs wilde
Kurdistan” (Through wild Kurdistan) or the constant
proceedings taken against the Turkish sociologist
and writer of many books on the Kurds, Ismali
Besikci, who was released in 1999 after nearly 17
years in prison. Hundreds of Kurdish writers have
been sentenced in Turkey or have been charged
because they wrote about their own stories, their
culture or language.
Following the setting up of the autonomous federal
state of Kurdistan in North Iraq Kurdish has become
the official language for about five million people.
The result has been a blossoming out of Kurdish
literature. At the same time comprehensive lexica,www.ekurd.net
school-books and
scientific publications have been published in
Kurdish.
Some GfbV books published by the GfbV on the Kurdish
problem:
Völkermord an den Kurden, Luchterhand, Hamburg /
Zürich 1991, HG T. Zülch
Kurdistan und die Kurden, Reihe Pogrom, drei Bände -
1988 ff., HG Ismet Chérif Vanly
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
www.gfbv.de
* Kurds are not recognized as an official minority
in Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in Big
Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to 25 million ethnic Kurds, a large
Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with
the Kurdish PKK for a Kurdish homeland in the
country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media. The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet has led
to judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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