Istanbul authorities ban Kurdish-language play

Turkish authorities have banned a Kurdish-language play that was due to open Tuesday in Istanbul's municipal theatre for the first time in its 106-year history, organisers told AFP.

"Beru", a Kurdish adaptation of Dario Fo's "Trumpets and Raspberries" was included in the October programme of the Istanbul Municipality City Theatre, to much fanfare.

The city theatre is run by the opposition CHP municipality, a secular party. 

Fo's work as a playwright and satirist was honoured in 1997 with the Nobel Literature Prize. But in a statement seen by AFP, authorities said the play had been banned because of "public order" concerns. 

The satire involves a politician rescued from kidnapping but in hospital, his face is mistakenly reconstructed to the likeness of the man who saved him.

Performed by Teatra Jiyana Nu (New Life Theatre), it had been due to open at the Gaziosmanpasa neighbourhood at 1730 GMT.

News of the ban arrived at 1300 GMT after the local administration in Gaziosmanpasa decided on it only hours before the play was due to start, a theatre spokespersons told AFP.

"We were all on stage for rehearsal and ready for the audience but instead handed a statement from the local administration that we are banned," actress Ruges Kirici told AFP outside the theatre, which was under police surveillance. 

"We cannot perform at the moment," she said.

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP government took steps to improve cultural and linguistic rights as part of its Kurdish initiative announced in 2009 when he was prime minister.

These included allowing Kurdish-language institutions and media outlets, as well as kindergartens that teach children in Kurdish.

But after the collapse of a fragile truce in 2015, violence resumed in the Kurdish majority southeast between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The government has since launched a crackdown on Kurdish media organisations and culture centres.

It was widened after the failed 2016 coup, with the government removing many elected mayors of Kurdish-run municipalities from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and replacing them with "trustees". 

The HDP took to Twitter to condemn the ban on a Kurdish-language play in a city "where five million Kurds live," denouncing a "fascist mentality".

The troupe had already performed the play in several festivals at home and abroad, but this was the first performance in an official Turkish venue.

Kirici also denounced the decision.

"The play by Dario Fo was performed in many languages all over the world," she said. Why is it dangerous when it is in Kurdish? Why does it threaten public safety?"

Actor Omer Sahin compared the decision to past pressure by the governments in the 1990s, when tensions between the PKK and the army were at their peak.

"We are no longer in the 1990s but the decision today has sent us back to the atmosphere and mindset of that era," he said.

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