Prosecutor backs deputy in speech row

Agence France-Presse

Restrictions apply only to party programs and propaganda activities, he said.

The leader of the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, Ahmet Türk, spoke in Kurdish during a party meeting in February, drawing criticism from fellow politicians and prompting the Parliament's television station to cut the live broadcast.

Another senior member of the DTP, Selahattin Demirtaş, also spoke in Kurdish at the same meeting. Keen to boost its bid to join the European Union, Turkey has recently granted etnically Kurdish citizens a series of cultural freedoms, among them the inauguration of a Kurdish-language television channel, TRT 6, in January.

But many continue to see the expression of Kurdish identity as a show of support for the bloody campaign that Kurdish separatists have waged since 1984. In 1991, eminent Kurdish politician Leyla Zana caused uproar in Parliament for making a brief remark in Kurdish after taking her oath. Zana and three fellow Kurdish politicians served 10 years in jail after Parliament removed their judicial immunity three years later.