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Kurdish Toprak family named their now 1.5-year-old baby girl 'Kurdistan,' but a local court ruled that the name could offend society and thus changed it to 'Helin.' Photo: DHA
ISTANBUL: Turkey’s highest court yesterday allowed a Kurdish couple the right to name their daughter “Kurdistan”, a word historically banned because it was considered seditious, local media said.
Turkish news agency Dogan said the appeals court overturned a lower court’s decision to bar Yunus and Elif Toprak’s from naming their daughter after the region Kurds consider to be their ethnic homeland.
The lower court had ruled the child’s name was an “insult to society”, and said the 23-month-old girl should instead be named Helin — a common first name in Turkey’s southwestern Sanliurfa province.
Dogan said the higher court quashed the ruling, citing every parent’s right to be able to name their own children even though the origins of the name may be foreign. Originally of Indo-European origin, the Kurds trace their roots back to the Medes of ancient Persia. AFP
