Ubuntu under investigation by Turkish attorney general

[Erdal Ronahi]

Hi all,

I am sorry that we, the Kurdish Team, did not answer to the ubuntu-devel
list earlier. We did not follow the discussion here. I just read parts of it
from the archives. Just let me clear up some misunderstandings:

1. Virtually all press articles in the Turkish media were written by people
completely ignorant of Linux. The Kurdish localisation of Ubuntu was
presented as everything from "The first Kurdish computer program" to "A
Kurdish operating system with a Southafrican Name". The term "distribution"
was mentioned nowhere, neither was the term "localization". So a lot of the
confusion originates not from our team but from insufficient research by the
media.

The Kurdish Team has never claimed to have developed an operating system or
to be the creators of Ubuntu. We only stressed the fact that with the
Kurdish localization of Ubuntu for the first time there a functional Kurdish
operating system exists.

2. Although some headlines mentioned a prosecution of "Ubuntu", all articles
made clear that the prosecutor launched an investigation against the Mayor
Abdullah Demirbas (not Osman Baydemir), most probably because of his speech
where he made the following statements:
""Whatever language it is in, we wanted it [our service] to be accessible
multilingually because multilingualism is our wealth. Our work is being
conducted on Kurdish, English, and Turkish language support. ... If we can
integrate multilingualism, multi-identities, and multi-culturalism in this
nation, this region will be a place of peace instead of conflicts." The
EXACT charges remain unclear, however.

If the image of Ubuntu in Turkey should have be damaged in any kind by the
events, as some people have claimed, that would hardly be our fault. On the
other hand I can assure you that the prestige of Ubuntu among Kurds
worldwide has skyrocketed.

During the last week we have got a lot of support from Ubunteros and
Linuxers from all over the world including Turkey. We are very grateful for
that and hope that attitudes which diapprove the use of certain languages
will soon be history - everywhere.

Best regards,
Erdal
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