The Associated Press | 23 February 2009 | By SUZAN FRASER

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A Kurdish politician defied Turkish law on Tuesday by giving a speech to Parliament in the Kurdish language. State-run television immediately cut off the live broadcast.

"Kurds have long been oppressed because they did not know any other language," said legislator Ahmet Turk. "I promised myself that I would speak in my mother tongue at an official meeting one day."

While members of his party gave Turk a standing ovation for the politically daring move, other lawmakers were upset.

"The official language is Turkish," said Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan. "This is written in the Constitution and laws. This meeting should have been conducted in Turkish."

Turkey's Kurds, who make up at least a fifth of this country's population, have long been repressed by the Turkish state. Turkish forces also are fighting against a Kurdish separatist group.

Until 1990, speaking Kurdish in public was entirely forbidden. Turkey continued to ban the use of the language in schools, official settings and broadcasts other than music until 2002, when — under European Union pressure — it allowed Kurdish-language broadcasts.

It still refuses to allow Kurdish education in schools and official settings, such as in Parliament, arguing that it would divide the country along ethnic lines.

Turk began his speech in Turkish but switched to Kurdish in several minutes. He said he was doing that in recognition of U.N. cultural body UNESCO's International Mother Language Day this week to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

The lawmaker was allowed to finish his speech in Kurdish.

"When (Kurdish party) members salute someone in their own language, they are prosecuted or investigated. When a mayor speaks to his people in their own language, he is prosecuted. But when the prime minister speaks Kurdish, nobody says anything," Turk said. "We don't think this is right. This is a two-faced approached. What did the prime minister ever do to free the language?"

He was referring to the fact that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan took his message of inclusion into the center of Turkey's Kurdish heartland on Saturday.

There, he told the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, once the center of Kurdish resistance, that its people were "first-class citizens."

Turkey's speech in Parliament was likely to increase tensions ahead of local elections in Turkey on March 29. It also could be used by a prosecutor as evidence to shut down Turk's Democratic Society Party on charges of having ties to Kurdish rebels.

Punishments for speaking Kurdish in parliament aren't clear, but defying the Constitution can be cause to disband the party.

State-run television, TRT, immediately stopped its live broadcast when Turk switched to Kurdish, and private NTV television said the prosecutor's office quickly launched a probe.

Turk's party, which has 21 legislators in parliament, already faces possible closure by the Constitutional Court for its alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.

That party runs much of Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast and is in fierce competition with Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party.

Still, lawmaker Rustem Zeydan, a member of that party from the prominently Kurdish province of Hakkari, welcomed Turk's action.

"It's an important and right step toward societal peace," he said.

Last year, Turkey amended laws to allow the state radio and television, TRT, to launch a 24-hour television station airing shows, films and news in Kurdish. But the changes do not affect laws on speaking Kurdish in parliament.

Turk's party has submitted several draft laws to free the speaking and use of Kurdish officially, but they were not backed by other parties and never went anywhere.

In 1991, Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Zana took the oath in parliament in the Kurdish language, causing an uproar. She was later stripped of her immunity, prosecuted on charges of separatism and links to the rebels and served a decade in prison along with three other Kurdish legislators.

Turk is unlikely to face a prison term, but legal analysts say his action could strengthen the prosecutor's case to disband his party.

Reaction to Turk's move split along ethnic lines.

Yigit, a student in Ankara, who would not give his last name fearing reprisals from Kurds, objected to the speech in Kurdish.

"If you are a citizen of Turkey, you have to speak Turkish," he said. "I cannot accept this action. Such attempts should be punished."

Residents of Diyarbakir were supportive.

"It was a courageous step," said Halil Bayram, a technician. "However, I also think it was a political move before the elections. I am not happy that politicians are escalating tensions before the elections."

Shopkeeper Hasim Uyanik said Turk should not be sanctioned.

"Perhaps it was not legal, but I hope he won't be punished," he said. "Such steps toward legitimizing Kurdish must be encouraged."

Multiple calls to UNESCO in Paris went unanswered Tuesday.

Associated Press reporters Selcan Hacaoglu and Emre Baran contributed to this report.