With Kurdistan in its name, this political party won't back down
Breaking taboo with the mention of Kurdistan in the Kurdistan Democratic Party's name is a sign that Kurdish politics in Turkey are changing.
Breaking taboos is not easy. The confusion of the Prosecutor’s Office of Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals in deciding whether the word "Kurdistan" in a political party’s name is in compliance with the law is proof of it. Turkish media reported on June 29 that the prosecutor’s office decided Turkey’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (T-KDP) was free to organize and operate as a political party and that the word “Kurdistan” did not contravene the law of the land. The same media, however, reported on July 2 that the same prosecutor’s office sent a written notice to T-KDP warning that it should remove the name “Kurdistan” from its party name.
Mustafa Guler, an Ankara-based lawyer, stresses that there is no confusion in the law. “The law is clear that this party is in violation of the ‘political parties law’ and until the government makes a change in that law, this party should not be legally free to operate,” he told Al-Monitor. Guler refers to Article 96 of the "political parties law" that makes it clear in writing that no party can be named after a region, religion, sect, race or ethnicity.
T-KDP Chairman Mehmet Emin Kardas, however, disregards such an objection in terms of its technicality. “We believe it is our justified birthright to name our region, our parties or anything that we like as ‘Kurdistan.’ The Kurdish people are entitled to be treated as a nation — unique with [their] language and culture,” he told Al-Monitor. “We are just leading the way for 21st century Turkey to become more democratic and honor human rights. This is the first taboo we’re breaking, but you will see — we will break so many more taboos in the near future.”
The Radikal daily indeed reported June 30 that a number of nongovernmental organizations in the region are waiting for T-KDP to establish a precedent clearing the way for them to use “Kurdistan” in their names. For example, the paper writes that the Kurdistan Industrialists and Businessmen's Association as well as the Kurdistan Lawyers Association are at the ready to officially register with these names once the dust settles on the T-KDP case. Once that happens, though, it looks like it will have a domino effect in the region, and that the name Kurdistan will appear everywhere.
