AMED - Kurdish Literary Association Co-President Rêdûr Dîjle said: "The struggle must be increased for the Kurdish language to become the official and educational language."

 

February 21 has been accepted as "International Mother Language Day" by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 1999. World Mother Language Day is also celebrated as a day when languages that are lost or at risk of disappearing are remembered. To date, 18 languages are under threat within the scope of the single language policy in Turkey. The assimilation policy implemented on the Kurdish language continues uninterruptedly. Kurdish Literary Association Co-President Rêdûr Dîjle touched upon the importance of the mother tongue on the occasion of February 21.

 

'LANGUAGE IS IDENTITY EXISTENCE'

 

“Language is the most valuable asset of society rather than a means of communication,” said Dîjle, adding: “Because this asset contains the mindset, morality and aesthetics of the society in the context of emotions and thoughts. This is also the identity existence of the society. Society continues its life with this existential identity. Therefore, the level of development of the language shows the level of development of the life of the society. Likewise, the lower the level of development of the language, the lower the standard of living. This will lead to the assimilation of that language over time.”

 

'CULTURAL GENOCIDE'

 

Emphasizing that the language of a society that cannot survive with its own language will be doomed to disappear under the hegemony of the dominant language over time, Dîjle reminded that being under the hegemony of the dominant language means assimilation. Stating that assimilation on language is a policy of "cultural genocide", Dîjle said: "Cultural genocide is a crime beyond physical genocide. In other words, it puts huge obstacles in front of you to think with your own language and codes. The language of others is a colonial language for us, and life with this colonial language is also a colonial life. For this reason, it is necessary to communicate with one's own truth on a correct basis and to connect this communication with identity in the most accurate way. Such societies are sick societies and are prone to all kinds of weaknesses. For this reason, if the Kurd public wants to live with its own truth and identity, it must unite around its language and speak and write with its language in every aspect of life. A life outside of this would be someone else's life.”

 

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE DEMAND 

 

Adding that they witness Kurdish banners, statements, theater, music and similar bans almost every day, Dîjle said: “The aim is to prevent Kurdish communication with their truth. It also means completely eliminating the Kurdish mentality, morality and aesthetics. As the Kurdish Literary Association, our main aim and quest is to make this spirit, this aesthetics, this mentality visible through literature in an original way. Our work so far is in this direction and will be in this direction from now on. We will carry this spirit, this identity, this color to every aspect of life through literature as much as we can.”

 

Reminding the importance of World Mother Language Day, Dîjle continued as follows: “Just as today is an important day for other oppressed languages, it is equally important for the Kurdish language. This struggle must be increased for the Kurdish language to become the official language and the language of education. We hope that the Kurd public will approach it with this sensitivity.”