Status Quo
In 2009, the state-run broadcaster, TRT, launched a channel (TRT 6) in the Kurdish language. Famous Kurdish musicians attended the inauguration, at which the prime minister made a speech in Kurdish.
The Turkey 2006 Progress Report underscores that, according to the Law on Political Parties, the use of languages other than Turkish is illegal in political life. This was seen when Leyla Zana spoke Kurdish in her inauguration as an MP she was arrested in 1994 and charged with treason and membership in the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Zana and the others were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Prior to this in 1992, the Kurd Institute in Istanbul was raided by police who arrest five people and confiscated books on Kurdish language, literature, and history
The European Commission concludes as of 2006 that "overall Turkey made little progress on ensuring cultural diversity and promoting respect for and protection of minorities in accordance with international standards". The Economist also asserts that "reforms have slowed, prosecutions of writers for insulting Turkishness have continued, renewed fighting has broken out with Kurds and a new mood of nationalism has taken hold", but it is also stressed that "in the past four years the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, improved rights for Kurds".
Read more about this topic: Human Rights Of Kurdish People In Turkey
Famous quotes related to status quo:
“At all events, as she, Ulster, cannot have the status quo, nothing remains for her but complete union or the most extreme form of Home Rule; that is, separation from both England and Ireland.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Status quo, you know, that is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in.’”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)