Diyarbakir Investors in Legal Battle Over Use of ‘Kurdistan’ in Company Name

A QUITE NEW BRANDING : “MADE IN KURDISTAN”

By Deniz Serinci – RUDAW – 12.4.2014 – DIARBAKIR—Turkish authorities have ordered a newly-established business association to remove the word ‘Kurdistan’ from its name and all official records, arguing that the use of the word is unconstitutional.

Earlier this month a group of investors in Turkey’s southeastern region known as Northern Kurdistan (Bakur) established the Kurdistan Association of Industrialists and Business People (KURDSIAD), but before long, they were told by the Diyarbakir provincial authorities that their act is against the Turkish constitution and criminal law. However, Baki Karadeniz, one of the founders of KURDSİAD accused the authorities of practicing a double-standard policy, saying, “The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan also uses the word ‘Kurdistan. It should not be a problem when the citizens use it.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan used the word “Kurdistan” in a speech last November in Diyarbakir when he received Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani. Karadeniz told Anadolu news agency that they will fight the government order and that his business association will not make any changes to its registered name. “We will explore all legal options to preserve [the word] Kurdistan,” Karadeniz vowed. According to Karadniz, the authorities have also demanded that KURDSİAD omits the word Kurdistan from its charter and all official records otherwise it will be listed as an illegal company. Director General of KURDSIAD, Hüseyin Bardakçı, echoed Karadeniz’s defiance, saying that the association will do its best to retain its current name. “We are not considering removing Kurdistan from the [company] rules,” Bardakçı told to the Turkish media. An official statement from the Diyarbakır Union of Provincial Management said that KURDSIAD’s name and charter is contrary to Article 1, 5 and 14 of the Turkish Constitution. “None of the rights and freedoms embodied in the Constitution shall be exercised in the form of activities aiming to violate the indivisible integrity of the State within its territory and nation,” said the statem

Also earlier this year, the Turkish Interior Ministry rejected a request by a group of Kurdish students to establish the Kurdistan Youth Movement under the same pretext that the word Kurdistan violates the Turkish constitution.

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