3/31/01 4:01 PM
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's prime minister has ordered government offices to avoid
using place names in the Kurdish language, calling the practice an effort to "create an
artificial separatist movement."

Officials should instead use Turkish, the national language, Saturday's Hurriyet newspaper
quoted Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit as saying in a letter sent to government offices.

Ecevit's office confirmed he had issued the letter, which was sent Friday.

"Geographic and place names that are not Turkish are being introduced into the daily
language," Ecevit said. "Circles that have designs over our country are trying to create an
artificial separatist movement."

Turkey regards all Muslims in the country as Turks and therefore does not recognize
Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds as a separate ethnic group.

Speaking Kurdish -- a language distinct from Turkish -- was legalized in 1991. Although
some Kurds refer to villages or cities by their Kurdish names, these are not recognized
officially. Teaching and broadcasting in Kurdish is illegal.

Ecevit, a poet who is frequently praised for his immaculate use of the Turkish language, also
warned that the use of English was eroding Turkish. Ecevit sent copies of a booklet with
Turkish equivalents of widely used foreign words and asked government employees to use
Turkish words in their place.

The letter comes two weeks after Turkey hinted that it may take steps toward granting
cultural rights to Kurds as part of its efforts to join the European Union. The country also
said that citizens are free to speak whatever language they like as long as the language is not
used to promote separatism.

Last year, a court ruled that streets in the overwhelmingly Kurdish city of Batman could not
take Kurdish names or be named after revolutionaries. The mayor of the city is appealing the
ruling.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com