Opening A Channel Of Communication With Kurds
(From an article by Nicole Pope. See also my posts below):
It was late in coming, but the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation’s (TRT) launch of TRT Ses (6), a television station which broadcasts in Kurdish 24 hours a day, marks an important turning point in the state’s approach to the Kurdish issue.
This positive development also fuels timid hopes that the government could resume its reform program, after a very disappointing performance last year. The timing of the launch is widely perceived to be linked to the March local elections. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) faces stiff competition from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) in the Southeast, and the television initiative is seen as an attempt to win over voters in the region.
The launch of TRT 6 can only be a first step. Restriction on private broadcasts, limited to a few hours a week, still persist, and will eventually have to be lifted as well.
How long will it take until the laws, and particularly the mentality of members of the judiciary, catch up with the government’s new approach and stop unnecessarily harassing Kurdish public figures for playing Kurdish songs, municipalities for using consonants like “w” or “x” on greeting cards or parents for giving their children Kurdish names? Will we, one day, see sign posts bearing the Kurdish names of villages in the Southeast alongside their official Turkish ones?…
Inshallah! But AKP also made some mistakes. That’s why liberal intellectuals criticized them.