December 11, 2006
GNU/Linux in Kurdish
The good news is that a Kurdish localization of the Ubuntu distribution of GNU/Linux has been released. The bad news is that the Turkish government can't seem to get its head around the idea that Kurds have the right to use their own language, even though it has theoretically repealed the laws that forbade the use of Kurdish.
Here is a screenshot showing the preferences menu in Kurdish.
Here are the distribution's home page and an article about it in the Kurdish wikipedia. (I don't know what it says as, regrettably, I don't yet understand Kurdish.)
The release was announced in an article in the Turkish newspaper Milliyet on November 21st, as well as on the web site of the city of Diyarbekir. The Milliyet and the Radikal now report that Abdullah Demirbaş, the Mayor of the town of Sur, who participated in the launch ceremony, is under investigation by the Diyarbekir public prosecutor. (Here is a report in English for those whose Turkish is rusty.)
Posted by Bill Poser at December 11, 2006 07:37 PM