Prison sentence for BDP party sign in Kurdish

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Doğubayazıt District Presidency, which was in the parliament in 2011, hung a sign in Kurdish as well as Turkish on the party building. After the sign “Partiya Aştî û Demokratyê a rêXistina Navçe ya Bazîd” was hanged, the police came to the party building to say that the sign would be taken down upon the order of the prosecutor’s office. After the people’s reaction, however, the police left the scene without taking down the sign. They did return at night and confiscated the sign.

After the sign was seized, Doğubayazıt Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation against BDP District chair Talha Kaya on charges of “propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “resistance to the police”. The sentence was published 10 years later at the Doğubeyazıt 2 Criminal Court of First Instance. The court considered the sign in Kurdish to be “propaganda for a terrorist organization” and sentenced Kaya to 1 year and 8 months in prison.

Evaluating the decision, Kurdish politician Talha Kaya said that it also reveals the consideration they have of the Kurdish language. Kaya said that they would appeal the sentence and added: “Those who forcibly took down our sign that day gave me a prison sentence for hanging the sign. There was only the name of the party in Kurdish on that sign. We will definitely win this case and get our sign back.”