Turkish police have detained five people for playing Kurdish-language songs at a wedding in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, the Bold news website reported on Thursday.
The detainees were accused of “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization,” referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
The police are still searching for two additional suspects.
The detentions follow recent police operations in the provinces of Aydın, Mersin, Ağrı, Siirt, Batman and Hakkari, which saw the detention of several others on similar accusations.
Kurds in Turkey are often pressured not to speak their native language. Authorities frequently claim that people speaking in Kurdish are chanting slogans in support of the PKK, which has been leading an armed insurgency against Turkey’s security forces since the ’80s in a campaign that has claimed the lives of some 40,000 people.
Prohibitions against the use of Kurdish in Turkey go back many years. Kurdish language, clothing, folklore and names were banned in 1937. The words “Kurds,” “Kurdistan” and “Kurdish” were among those officially prohibited. After a military coup in 1980, speaking Kurdish was formally forbidden, even in private life.
The visibility of Kurdish on TV and in the print media was only made possible in the early 2000s thanks to significant progress made in the country’s bid to become a member of the EU.
Yet, the drift towards nationalism and the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the last decade has led to an increase in anti-Kurdish racist attacks.
