TESEV urges govt changes on headscarf, Armenian issues

Armenian identity and culture in Turkey should be protected as laid out in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, and Turkey's constitution should make no references to ethnicity when defining citizenship, urged the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) over the weekend. In a report called "Hearing the Armenians of Turkey" released after a two-day conference on participatory democracy, TESEV also said that laws criminalizing insulting Turkish identity should be revised to include cover insults of other national identities as well. A planned new constitution should embrace such principles of fundamental rights and freedoms, as the government is meant to serve the people, said the report. It added that protecting Turkey's diverse cultures, languages and lifestyles should be listed among the state's primary duties. To protect Armenian culture, Armenian and other minority schools should be given special status, and there should be Armenian textbooks, training for educators of Armenian descent, Armenian language and literature courses offerings at universities, and support for such activities as Armenian radio broadcasts and plays. The report stressed the importance of equality in educating clerics and regulating places of worship. In a separate report on the headscarf issue, TESEV argued against the ban on wearing headscarves on university campuses and for employees of public agencies, branding it discrimination.