– Hurra for Injuria som er femti år, men fremdeles like vakker!

Injuria.no • 16. desember 2019

Tekst: Figen Inci Kozakli 
Foto: Privat 

I år markerer vi at Dragefjellet i et halvt hundreår har utdannet jurister. Det betyr tusenvis av jurister innen ulike felt, byer og land. En av disse juristene er Bjørn Olav Blokhus. Han er den aller første redaktøren av Injuria – et engasjement som har bidratt til jobb i Bergens Tidende, og senere også som ambassadør av Norge i ulike land. Injuria har tatt kontakt med den pensjonerte ambassadøren, og han påstår at Injuria er minst like vakker nå, som den var for femti år siden.

Bakgrunnen for tidsskriftet Injuria

Formålet med Injuria var ikke bare å fungere som et tidsskrift, men Injuria skulle samtidig være ledd i en identitetsbyggingsprosess. Det nye juridiske lærestedet i Norge skulle ta sin plass som en interessant og synlig institusjon, uavhengig av det juridiske fakultet i Oslo.
Studentene bidro til dette ved å etablere studentorganisasjonene. Det juridiske fagutvalg og Juristforeningen startet eget tidsskrift – Injuria, bladet du holder mellom hendene dine nå.
 
Vi måtte snarest kvitte oss med det filialstempelet Oslo satte på oss, uttaler Blokhus og veileder meg gjennom starten av Injuria.  

Det kom et tilbud fra Stud.jur om å få noen sider bak i bladet til Injurias disposisjon, og dette ble en rød klut for oss. Uten det utspillet hadde det kanskje tatt noe lengre tid å få Injuria etablert, mener han.

Inspirasjonen til navnet Injuria kom fra Juristforeningen i Bergen. Deres skytshelgen var Qua Injuria som var en padang til Oslos gullblade hoppe. Dette ble oppfattet som et godt navn til et studenttidsskrift, og slik ble det.

Stor entusiasme

Injuria i 2019 trykker hele 2400 eksemplarer som havner i postkassen til jusstudenter seks ganger i året. Kostnaden for dette er studentenes favorittord: «gratis»! Det var ikke slik i Blokhus sin tid. Da måtte man betale for abonnement av Injuria og det er dermed naturlig å spørre han hvordan Injuria ble tatt imot.

– Etableringen av vårt eget studenttidsskrift i Bergen ble mottatt med stor entusiasme blant studentene. Jeg tror de hadde følelsen av å være med på noe viktig , å være med å legge et fundament for studentinstitusjoner som ville skape trygghet, samhold og identitet for nåværende og fremtidige jusstudenter i Bergen, mener han.

Flertallet var hyret inn for å be om støtte

Ved spørsmål om hva som var det mest utfordrende er svaret den velkjente pengeknipen.  

– Utfordringen var jo økonomien, det var ikke mye offentlig pressestøtte å få! Vi var totalt avhengig av annonseinntekter og flertallet i redaksjonen var derfor hyret inn som annonseakvisitører. De banket på dører hos finansinstitusjoner, advokater og private næringsdrivende, sier han og husker særlig é n talentfull akkvisitør. Studenten het Bernt Adler Solberg og ble senere visepolitimester i Bergen i en årrekke.

– I kraft av sine 1,98 centimeter på strømpelesten og et – skal vi si, kompromissløst utseende, kom han aldri tomhendt tilbake!

Redaktørarbeidet straffet seg faglig

Det var mindre viktig for Blokhus å være redaktør for Injuria, og fokuset hans var å få bladet opp og stå og legge fundamentet for en bærekraftig utvikling av dette for oss så viktige studenttilbudet. 

– Men det er klart, det å kunne bidra til å gi studentene sitt eget debattforum og vedlikeholde dette, var en ikke ubetydelig inspirasjon!

Ved spørsmål om hvor tidskrevende redaktørarbeidet var, legger ikke Blokhus skjul på at det gikk ut over andre felt.

– Sant å si brukte jeg all min tid på Injuria og Juristforeningen, der jeg satt i styret, i et par semester i løpet av annen avdeling. Det straffet seg nådeløst faglig, men så mye moro har jeg sjelden hatt!

Selv om arbeidet med Injuria har vært tidskrevende, har han fått stort utbytte av det også i hans videre karriere. Han søkte nemlig midlertidig jobb hos Bergens Tidende etter avlagt eksamen, og kunne stolt vifte med første og andre utgave av Injuria som bevis på hans eminente penn. Han mimrer tilbake til jobbintervjuet.

– Redaktøren som skulle eventuelt ansette meg kastet et blikk på Injuria, og uttalte som følger: «Så du kan vell skriva då, og forresten du ser jo greie ud!».  

Blokhus uttaler at han fremdeles ikke vet hva som var viktigst for å få jobben.

Ikke et kappløp med tiden nå

I dag er Blokhus pensjonert ambassadør, etter nesten førti år i norsk utenrikstjeneste. Han har vært ambassadør i Indonesia, Øst-Timur og Marokko. Senere ble han også generalkonsul i Shanghai. Han er helt overbevisst om at engasjementet har gitt uttelling.

– Jeg husker ennå at aspirantnemda i Utenriksdepartementet tilla det betydelig vekt at jeg hadde vært såpass mye involvert i studentaktiviteter i studietiden. Dette kan være noe å merke seg for de som leser dette og har tenkt seg inn i UD, påstår han.  
Alle er for øvrig velkommen til å ta kontakt med meg for rådgivning i den forbindelse, jeg har god tid nå! Legger han til.

 Jusstudent for femti år siden og i dag

Svarene til Blokkhus vitner om at det er mye som har skjedd i løpet av femti år. Jeg spør han helt til slutt om han kan sammenligne sin egen studietid med hvordan han tror det er i dag.

–  Det er mye mer disiplinert i dag, mye strammere tøyler og en mer systematisk studieform. Vi hadde det nok mer moro, var friere og mer overlatt til oss selv. Noen lyktes med det, andre ikke, mener han og avslutter med et spørsmål åpen for diskusjon:
Stort sett er det vel mer betryggende i dag?

 

 

Av Hannah M. Behncke, Eylül Sahin and Sabrina Eriksen Zapata – ELSA Bergen, Human Rights, Researchgruppen 24. april 2025
Oppression isn’t always loud - it can be the quiet erasure of culture and language, stripping minorities of their freedom to express who they are. Language and culture are two of the most important means to keep one's identity alive. Unfortunately, many minorities face extreme repression regarding their background. The Kurdish ability to perform their culture in Turkey has been a long struggle. This is still the case today, where the Kurdish minority face backlash for speaking their language. This article will look into the Kurdish fight to protect their identity in Turkey. To gain a deeper understanding of the diverse perspectives on this issue, we interviewed a Kurdish and a Turkish citizen of Turkey about their views on the Turkish state's treatment of Kurds. Legal basis Although several international legal frameworks exist to protect minority cultures and languages, Turkey has not incorporated them into its legal system. Article 27 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights explicitly states that “minorities shall not be denied the right […] to enjoy their culture, [...] or to use their own language.” However, despite ratifying the ICCPR, Turkey made a reservation excluding Article 27. Similarly, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages requires minority languages to be accessible in education, judicial court proceedings, and in the media. However, Turkey has not ratified this charter. Domestically, the Turkish constitution does not recognize Kurds as a minority. In fact, article 42 explicitly prohibits the “teaching of any language other than Turkish as a mother tongue to Turkish citizens”.1 As a result, the Kurdish language lacks legal protection, unlike Ladino, Greek, and Armenian, which are safeguarded under the Treaty of Lausanne (1923).2 Historical overview After the Ottoman Empire's collapse, the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres promised Kurdish autonomy, but the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne nullified it, dividing Kurdistan among Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria without self-rule.3 Under Atatürk, Turkey enforced homogenization, banning Kurdish in public, closing Kurdish schools, renaming villages (1924) and forcibly relocating Kurds—even though most Kurds did not speak Turkish.4 The state criminalized Kurdish, promoted Citizen, Speak Turkish! and justified relocations as a tool to suppress identity.5 The Sheikh Sa’id Rebellion (1925), led by Kurdish nationalists and Islamists, was brutally crushed, triggering long-term conflict. Martial law and mass deportations lasted until 1939, while uprisings in Ararat (1930) and Dersim (1937–38) faced massacres, bombings, and poison gas, drawing parallels to the Armenian Genocide.6 Allegations of British support for Kurdish rebels persist, but remain debated.7 Kurdish political movements resurfaced in the 1960s and 1970s, with the Kurdish Democratic Party of Turkey (1965) and the Marxist-Leninist PKK (1978) engaging in armed resistance. Turkey designated the PKK a terrorist group in 1997, followed by the US and EU.8 Forced displacement continued, with over a million Kurds migrating between 1950 and 1980 due to state violence and poverty.9 The 1980 military coup further suppressed Kurdish politics, banning education (1982) and publications (Law No. 2932, 1983).10 Despite lifting the language ban in 1991, Kurdish broadcasting remained illegal until 2002. From 1984 to 1999, Turkey destroyed 4,000 Kurdish villages, displaced three million people, and killed tens of thousands in its campaign against Kurdish insurgency.11 The 1991 language bill allowed limited private Kurdish use, but public use remained restricted. Some progress followed in the 21st century, including Kurdish-language broadcasts (2004), a state-run TV channel (2009), and Kurdish as an optional school subject (2012), though full linguistic and cultural rights remain elusive. Oral storytelling (Dengbêj) persisted despite restrictions. Between 2013 and 2015, Turkey’s peace talks with the PKK, involving Abdullah Öcalan, PKK commanders, and pro-Kurdish HDP intermediaries, collapsed—renewing conflict in southeastern Turkey.12 Arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, torture, and land dispossession persist, as security forces often fail to distinguish civilians from PKK members.13 How is the situation today? An estimated 12–20 million Kurds live in Turkey, making up approximately 14–23% of the country's population. The wide range in estimates is due to the absence of ethnicity-related data in official statistics and the social and political stigma that may lead some to conceal their identity.14 As Kurds originate from various countries, most today identify with the state in which they reside. Surveys suggest that many Kurds feel a strong sense of discrimination. Only 28% believe they are treated equally to ethnic Turks, while 58% report experiencing discrimination. Some have even been denied medical services and housing due to their ethnicity.15 To better understand these challenges, we spoke with a Kurdish individual from Elbistan, Turkey, who spent most of his life there before relocating. When asked if he had ever felt pressure speaking Kurdish in public, he recalled visits to public institutions where his family, unable to speak Turkish, had to use Kurdish, but were not allowed to. “It always made us feel fear and anxiety”, he said. He also described restrictions on Kurdish culture: “Whenever we listened to Kurdish music or played traditional games outside, we knew we were being watched. Some of my friends were even detained just for playing games with Kurdish music. It felt like our culture was a crime.” In contrast, a Turkish conservative nationalist offered a different perspective. While personally holding nationalist views, he answered the questions in general terms, arguing that Kurds are integrated into society and do not face systemic barriers. When asked if there was tension between Turks and Kurds in daily life, he dismissed the idea: “Generalizing Turkey’s sociology is difficult, but I don’t see any real barrier. I have Kurdish friends and colleagues, and background doesn’t matter to us. In cities like Istanbul, people aren’t judged based on race, religion, language, or culture.” Even though he acknowledged past discrimination, he viewed it as a historical issue rather than an ongoing one. While the two perspectives differ, they reflect broader discussions on the extent of cultural and linguistic inclusion in Turkey. Surveys suggest that many Kurds report experiencing discrimination, while some view Kurdish cultural expression as unrestricted. The extent to which Kurdish identity is freely expressed - or whether challenges remain - continues to be a subject of debate. The survival of Kurdish culture in Turkey In a survey conducted regarding Kurdish identity, only 30% of Kurds reported their Kurdish language skills to be “good”, and of this 30%, only 44% of them reported that their children had the same strong language skills.16 This suggests that it is harder for each passing generation to maintain and teach the Kurdish language. So how has the oppression impacted Kurdish ability to maintain their language? According to the latter interviewee “Kurdish is spoken openly, cultural traditions are practiced, and there are Kurdish-language newspapers and TV channels”. Media As mentioned above, the Turkish government continuously violates the “freedom of expression”. In 2021, Turkey was the country with most cases regarding violation to “freedom of expression” before the European Court of Human Rights.17 Regarding Kurdish media, there has been a consistent crackdown on Kurdish media platforms. There has also been consistent imprisonment of journalists either writing in Kurdish or regarding Kurdish repression. For instance, Nedim Turfent was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment in 2017 for covering the clashes between the Turkish army and the PKK. In his sentence, he was charged with “membership of a terrorist organization”.18 Education The Educational accessibility to teaching Kurdish has improved in the years. Students in cities with a high population of Kurds, can choose Kurdish as a subject in primary- and secondary school. In addition, some state level universities offer Kurdish programs. However, these educational means have been greatly criticized by Kurdish activists, in regard to the government lowering the quality of education by not supplying enough teachers and appropriate materials needed for the classes.19 Final remarks Language is not just a means of communication; it embodies history, culture, and identity. The Kurdish struggle for linguistic freedom in Turkey is a fight for existence, where legal barriers and social stigmas persist despite claims of progress. While the government insists on inclusivity, Kurdish activists highlight ongoing repression, and for many, fear and anxiety remain. The future of Kurdish identity depends not just on legal reforms but on broader acceptance within Turkish society. Whether true equality is within reach - or remains a distant hope - ultimately depends on who you ask.
Av Injuria 24. april 2025
I denne utgaven: Nordtveit, Ernst - " Rettar til nausttomt " - 1982