Turkey Parliament bans words Kurdistan and genocide

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Late Thursday night, the Turkish Parliament passed a set of bylaws forbidding lawmakers from employing certain words and phrases, such as 'Kurdistan' or 'Armenian Genocide,' during legislative sessions.

The article stipulating the ban does not explicitly list the banned words, terms or phrases but gives outlines on what not to say.

It states that MPs cannot use definitions that are "in violation of the administrative structure" as defined by the "indivisible wholeness" of the Republic of Turkey, reported Kurdistan 24's Bureau in the Turkish capital.

The law effectively prevents lawmakers from saying 'Kurdistan,' 'Kurdish provinces,' or the 'Kurdish region' in reference to the Kurdish-majority south and southeast which has historically been known as Kurdistan.

Turkish bureaucracy and the public remain overly sensitive to the word "Kurdistan," which in some cases they readily associate with "treason and terrorism."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), and its far-right ally in the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the opposition, came together to pass the resolution.

Lawmakers speaking in contravention of the new parliamentary regulations could face expulsion for three sessions or a two-thirds cut in their salary.

"Insulting or swearing at the history and shared past of the Turkish nation" was another part of the article on which the AKP and MHP agreed.

Using the term "genocide" in relation to the 1915 systematic extermination and deportation of the Armenian people by the Ottoman government, or "massacre" when referring to the numerous military campaigns against the Kurds since the beginning of the 20th century have been considered 'insults' by the Turkish authorities.

An ethnic Armenian MP of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Garo Paylan, was thrown out of the Parliament in January following his calling the 1915 crimes a “genocide.”

HDP lawmakers protested the new regulations, staging a walkout from the parliamentary session as the vote began.

Editing by G.H. Renaud