ANKARA: Minorities support right to defense in mother tongue

Hurriyet, Turkey
Nov 20 2012

Minorities support right to defense in mother tongue

by Vercihan Ziflioðlu
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

The debate over legal defense in Kurdish, currently one of the most
controversial issues in Turkey, is spreading to include mother toungue
defense for other ethnic communities.

Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News, Caucasian Associations Federation
Head Vacid Kadýoðlu said, “The right to defense and education in
[one’s] mother tongue is everyone’s right. Manipulating this right for
politics, as is done with Kurdish, is a wrong deed.”

“They made us forget our own mother tongue, the Circassian language.
So we cannot bring the right to defense in mother tongue to the
agenda,” Kadýoðlu said.

“First of all, we demand the return of our right to receive education
in [our] mother tongue. The government put into force the law of
elective mother tongue and dialect lessons, but also enacted a
10-person quota condition. They are not sincere,” Kadýoðlu said.

Mother tongue ‘a right’

The head of the Laz Culture Association, lawyer Mehmet Ali Beþli,
touched upon a different aspect of the issue. “Mother tongue is a
right, and the ability to defend [oneself] in one’s mother tongue,
which one can speak most efficiently, has a crucial role. People must
make their defense in the language through which they can express
themselves the best,” Beþli said.”The state initiated elective mother
tongue lessons in schools and opened a television channel [in Kurdish
languages]; however, they do not approve mother tongue defense in
courts. This is not understandable.”

If the right to mother tongue defense enters into force, translators
will be assigned twice to those who cannot speak Turkish. Those who
speak Turkish but demand to make their defense in their mother tongues
will have to bring their translators with them. Referring to this
decision, Beþli asked, “How will the court determine a person’s skills
in Turkish grammar; how could it be measured?”

He added, “Mother tongue rights should not be shaped only through Kurds”

The founder of Anatolian Culture and Research Association (AKADER),
Altan Açýkdilli, who presented a file titled “Research on Peoples’
Constitution,” to Ankara a few months ago, said they gave full support
to the right to defense in mother tongue.

Açýkdilli also commented on the translator condition for those
demanding to make defense in their mother tongue.

“This is a clear representation of a bargaining mentality. Freedom has
no condition. A person makes defense in mother tongue or does not,” he
said. Açýkdilli also said some technical problems might occur if the
right to defense in mother tongue enters into force, adding that some
measures should be taken against that.

“Translation of different dialects requires expertise. And there is a
crucial point here; legal terms do not have equivalencies in some
dialects, so a short-term training will be required for translators,”
Açýkdilli said. Açýkdilli also touched upon the fact that the debates
with regard to mother tongue are made only through Kurds. “The public
is having the wrong debate; the government represents the rights
regarding mother tongue as something only given to Kurds. However,
various communities from different ethnicities live in this country,”
Açýkdilli said.

“The rights of these communities should not be shaped through the
policies implemented with regard to Kurds,” Açýkdilli said.

Hadig Hemþin Culture Sustenance Association head Hikmet Akçiçek also
expressed the same concern. “When it comes to rights, a perspective
covering all the communities within the country is required. Mother
tongue defense and education are everyone’s right.”
November/19/2012

From: Baghdasarian