Ubuntu under investigation by Turkish attorney general

[Ozgur Karatas]

Hello,
I dont get angry to supporters of kurdish language. I respect of them. But
I disapprove statement which a minister said that we developed ubuntu.and
organize press conference. after celebrated about ubuntu. I disapprove
this..
Regards,

Ozgur Karatas

> On 29/11/06, Mark Shuttleworth <mark at canonical.com> wrote:
>>
>> Ozgur Karatas wrote:
>>
>> I am exploreing this on me. although ubuntu team made the package of
>> kurdish language, they say that they had done it.. The person who said
>> this lie ise a turkish diplomat. he says that they improved UBUNTU. i
>> will prosecute to him..
>>
>> The name of the person which maked this mistake is Osman Baydemir. He is
>> a
>> Continent president of Turkey.
>> http://www.milliyet.com/2006/11/21/guncel/agun.html
>>
>>
>> Ozgur, I slow down. I don't think it's sensible to charge around
>> threatening to prosecute people until the full facts are clear, and at
>> this
>> stage its not at all clear what's going on. We want to be supportive of
>> the
>> local Ubuntu team, and the Kurdish translation efforts, and we will need
>> to
>> be diplomatic and effective in the way we approach this. Please work
>> with
>> Jono to get a full understanding of what's going on.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>
>
> Our ethos is "Every computer user should be able to use their software in
> the language of their choice. ". This is controversial in many situations,
> as language issues can be extremely political in many parts of the world.
> The right to speak your own language is tied up with issues of national
> identity and minority groups asserting their language rights can be a
> threat
> to the state which can see them as separatists.
>
> This situation is not unique to the status of Kurdish in Turkey and will
> no
> doubt come up again as we increase our language support.
>
> The reception took place in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyarbakir which
> Wikipedia describes as the unofficial capital of Turkish Kurdistan. One of
> the speakers was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmed_Uzun a writer who has
> been imprisoned for Kurdish language activity and who has recently
> returned
> from exile.
>
> In short, this wasn't a low profile geek-only, technical launch. This was
> a
> major political event.
>
> I'm proud as a linguist and a free software advocate that linux was the
> first operating system to be available for these people in their own
> language. When we create our own software we can use our own language, and
> make those decisions that large corporations wouldn't touch because of the
> fallout.
>
> I think we need a way of flagging these up so that we can be forewarned if
> a
> controversial release is about to happen. We could have sent out a press
> release highlighting "Every computer user should be able to use their
> software in the language of their choice" to the Turkish press to explain
> where we are coming from. We don't want linux to be seen as "belonging" to
> one particular community, but also we certainly shouldn't back down on our
> ethos of "your software, your language".
>
> Caroline


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