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Turkey-Mayors risk jail in language row

Prosecutors are seeking jail terms of up to three years for two mayors who were elected from the Democratic Society Party (DTP) and 17 aldermen who introduced Kurdish and other languages to official business while in office, court officials said Monday. According to the Turkish Constitution, Turkish is the sole official language and no other language may be used in government offices and municipalities. The accused are Osman Baydemir, the mayor of Diyarbakır, and Abdullah Demirbaş, who was removed last month from his post as mayor of Sur, a town in Diyarbakır. Demirbaş was removed after his city council in January passed a bill allowing the use of Kurdish, Armenian, Arabic, Syriac and English in municipal services.

Full story at http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=118122&bolum=103

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