eskandar wrote:kalemiye wrote:Nowruz is celebrated in Turkey mostly by Kurds, but it's not an official holiday.
Actually, it is an official holiday in Turkey now. See
here.
Wonderful, because it totally contradicts what is written here (they didn't even bother themselves to update it since 2008):
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/TR/Genel/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFF8AB2E675B78192E8FF57EDA7516DB771 As you see, Nevruz is nowhere to be found. Nor in this website:
http://www.takvim.com/resmi_tatiller.phpAnd if it was, then I wouldn't understand the point of this group on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=11719987270edit: I saw this in the website you linked:
1- Azarbaijan
22 March Nevruz Holiday (Official Holiday)
2- Kazakhstan
21 March Nevruz Holiday (Official Holiday)
3- Kyrgyzstan
21 March Nevruz Holiday (Official Holiday)
4- Uzbekistan
21 March Nevruz Holiday (Official Holiday)
5- Turkmenistan
21 March Nevruz Holiday (Official Holiday)
6- Turkey
21 March Nevruz Holiday
7- Norther Cyprus Turkish Republic
21 March Nevruz Holiday
These words are the names of some programmes of the Kurdish channel of TRT, TRT6:
Hewaname
Xeber
Xon U Kerwon
Weşanxane
As you see there isn't such a case any more. Turkey is trying to be a member of EU and is making amendments to bring its standards in accordance with the European standards. You can see this in every field and every part of life. Yes, we have some problems but I can say that even now our standards of democracy and human rights are much better than many countries in the region. At least, we have the will to change and to be better.
Nadi is right, usage of non-Turkish characters is not such a big issue anymore, and it is not difficult to find young people using them, specially in sms and sites like Facebook is not difficult to see words such as sevimli or kardes written as "sewimli" or "qardes". Also, I've seen posters of Kurdish singers using all of those "forbidden" characters, and also newspapers published in Kurdish, not to mention that a new TV Channel was opened with its full program in Kurdish, and there will be also new channels broadcasting in Arabic and Persian as well.
I recommend you watching a documentary called "Crossing the bridge: the sound of Istanbul", in which this topic is addressed as well.
Last year there were lessons of Kurdish in my university, and on the walls there were many posters greeting Nevruz in Kurdish.
Nevertheless, certain usages of Kurdish and q, x, y, are still forbidden, as it can be read in the following article:
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/10683033.asp?gid=243