Constitutional Court Verdict Allows to Use Kurdish in Politics

A Constitutional Court verdict came into effect this morning, allowing politicians and political parties to officially use Kurdish language, especially during party meetings and electoral propaganda.

According to an article appeared in Taraf newspaper, the verdict allowed political parties to have banners and draft constitutions in a language other than Turkish.

On July 5, 2012, the Constitutional Court ruled that a Political Party Law article that banned political activities in any language other than Turkish was unconstitutional, a verdict which was scheduled to implement by today.

In January 2011, Yakup Almaç, a local politician from Peace and Democracy Party in Van province, held a speech in Kurdish in front of his party building and changed his party's banner with another one in Kurdish and Turkish.

The Attorney General's Office of Van province filed a lawsuit against Yakup Almaç for violating an article on Turkey's Political Party Law which said "politicians and political parties in Turkey are now allowed to use any language other than Turkish during party meetings or congresses, nor they are allowed to distribute banners, pamphlets, declarations, voice and video recordings."

The court, however, took the case to the constitutional court saying that the regulation violated Articles 2, 7, 10, 13 and 38 of Turkey's constitution.