Two weeks ago, host Muge Anli had a guest, Tumer Ildemir, on her ATV show Tatli Sert describing his search for his parents, who had abandoned him at a young age. As part of her programme, Anli took calls live on air from viewers, one of whom was a woman speaking the Kurdish dialect Zazaki.
Zazaki is the language of Zazas, ethnic Kurds from eastern Turkey. The most well-known Zaza is Selahattin Demirtas, jailed Kurdish politician and former co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
Ildemir appears to understand Zazaki and asked the host if he can answer the woman in the same dialect. But Anli refused, saying, “It does not make sense to broadcast something we do not understand.” The caller tried several times to make a point, but was repeatedly interrupted by the host.
Soon after the programme aired, a group of protesters people gathered in front of the TV station and demanded an apology. The host defended her decision.
“I will not apologize. Why should I? We have been living in the same country, exchanging girls,” she said, referring to intermarriage between Turks and Zazas. She added that she has good contacts with Zazas and respects them.
Erdal Baydemir, a HDP member of parliament representing Bingol province where many Zazas live, condemned the host’s attitude, describing it as “racist.”
“There are about 4-6 million Zazaki speakers. This act against the Zazas has angered them all,” Baydemir said in the Turkish legislature on Friday. Speaking in Zazaki, he was heckled by nationalist MPs.
The speaker of the parliament asked Baydemir to speak a language that “everyone understands.”
The Kurdish language is banned in official places in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said multiple times that Kurdish language is as permitted for Kurds, just as Turkish language is for Turks. However, he added that Turkish is the only formal language of the country.
In June, Kurds accused Turkish officials of removing Kurdish language from signage in provinces in the southeast of the country.
Fifteen mayors from the pro-Kurdish HDP have been removed from their posts because of alleged links to Kurdish rebels.
The exact number of Zazas living in Turkey is not known but unofficial figures estimate they are at least two million. There are over 15 million Kurds in the country.
