Urfa 5th Penal Court has allowed defendants to defense themselves in Kurdish. This is a news as other courts, for example Diyarbakýr is not allowed the defense in Kurdish.

As DIHA news agency points out "the dilemma of judicial system about the use of Kurdish language creates weird scenes at the courts".

An interpreter was called in during the the trial of 98 people at Urfa 5th Penal Court. But he had a hard time to understand the defendant’s statements. The defendants were tried for having taken part in a march on December 5, 2009 in Urfa to welcome the now banned Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies. Some of the people under trial are members of BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) and are already in prison because of the historical KCK case.

Urfa is a case in itself. Indeed seventeen people from Peace and Solution Group were on trial at Diyarbakýr 5th Heavy Penal Court charged with “membership of an illegal organization”, “making propaganda for an illegal organization”, “committing crime without being member of an illegal organization”. The defendants insisted to be allowed to give their statements in Kurdish, but were denied the right to do so.