Bans on Kurdish cultural events or activities are not rare in Turkey. The outlawing of the Kurdish-language play “Beru” has been condemned as the latest attack on Kurdish culture.
“It all happened very quickly,” said Kurdish director Nazmi Karaman. The police suddenly appeared outside the theater and everyone was forced to leave, he said.
“The play has been performed in Turkey for three years now. The authorities never had a problem with it before, but suddenly they appear to have changed their mind,” the director complained. Shortly before “Beru,” which translates as “Faceless,” was due to be performed for the first time in Istanbul’s municipal theater, it was banned by the administrator of Istanbul’s Gaziosmanpasa district for “disturbing public order.”
The two-act play, due to be performed by the Kurdish theater group Teatra Jiyana Nu, is an adaptation of a satirical play by Italian writer Dario Fo. Almost 4,000 people had already seen the play performed in the last three years, both in Turkey and abroad, but it would have been the first Kurdish-language performance in the 106-year history of Istanbul’s municipal theater. Director Nazmi Karaman believes that its staging would have sent an important signal to Turkish Kurds and Turkish society at large.
