Turkey orders lifting of "ethnic" name restrictions

23 September 2003

Turkey is lifting its current ban on Kurdish and other ethnic first names, the government announced on Tuesday.

In a move announced on live television Ankara pledged to push through the lifting of the restrictions on naming children, a reform formally adopted last year but since stalled.

Turkey's minority Kurds had long demanded an end to the ban as well as other media and educational restrictions seen as curbing their cultural freedoms.

Such reforms have also been cited by the European Union as a precondition for Turkey's candidacy for membership of the EU.

CNN-Turk television broadcast the announcement after receiving it by fax in the form of a copy of new government orders to local authorities.

The government circular said "all names using the Turkish alphabet that do not offend public opinion or undermine public morals can be used".

The orders are a crucial step towards implementation of the new law adopted on the eve of last year's EU Copenhagen Summit.

Vahit Bicak, human rights adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was a guest on the "Manset" television programme that broadcast the new government order.

He conceded that human rights reforms adopted steadily by the Turkish parliament since last year had run into difficulties, calling on the public and civic groups to put pressure on bureaucrats, police and judges who were still "resisting" the changes.

"We have to be patient, but these reforms will end up being implemented," he vowed.

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