NEWS CENTER - DEM Party held its group meeting in 7 languages on the occasion of 21 February Mother Language Day. Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan said: “Our language is not an unknown language, it is Kurdish. Our language is our redline. Kurdish must be the official language."

 

People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan evaluated the agenda at his party's weekly Parliamentary group meeting. Bakırhan made his evaluation in Kurdish on the occasion of February 21, World Mother Language Day.

 

BAKIRHAN SPOKE KURDISH

 

Bakırhan said: “Today, approximately 7 thousand languages are spoken in the world. 90 percent of these disappeared due to the assimilation policies of the states. 100 years ago, 20 languages were spoken in Turkey. However, 18 of them disappeared. A writer says, 'My mother language is my skin and other languages are my clothes.' We also say that our mother language is not only our skin, but also our life and soul."

 

Commemorating Baba Tahir Uryan, Elî Herîrî, Ehmedê Xanî, Melayê Cizîrî, Feqiyê Teyran, Cegerxwîn, Celadet Elî Bedirxan, Musa Anter, Ferhat Kurtay, Mehmed Uzun and other writers who worked for the Kurdish language.

 

'AKP WANTS TO CREATE KURDS WITHOUT KURDISH'

 

Pointing to assimilation policies, Bakırhan said: “The pressures on the Kurdish language have not ended since the founding of Turkey. Laz, Syriac, Circassian and many other languages were eliminated. Turkey has turned into a language cemetery within a hundred years. Still written on the dungeon walls: 'Speak Turkish, speak a lot'. However, with resistance, our language has come to this day.

 

AKP wants to create an alternative Kurdology. It opened Kurdish departments in universities. Students finished school but were not assigned. Elective courses started, they opened a television called TRT Şeş (Six). However, there they insult the Kurdish language. They want to create Kurds without Kurdish.

 

TRUSTEES ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE KURDISH

 

After the trustee coup, attacks on Kurdish increased. Many newspapers, television channels, agencies, magazines, radios, publishing houses and schools were closed. The trustees first attacked Kurdish symbols. They closed down Kurdî-Der and the Kurdish Institute. They removed the names of people such as Celadet Elî Bedirxan and Cegerxwîn from the signs. Trustees are the enemies of the Kurdish language. Erdoğan says, 'Every child should know their mother language against assimilation.' When Kurds say 'our language' they become 'terrorists'. When our friends speak Kurdish in the Parliament, it is recorded as an 'unknown' or 'unintelligible' language. Our language is neither known nor understood. Our language is Kurdish.

 

OUR LANGUAGE IS OUR REDLINE

 

We must speak our language in every aspect of life. We must see our language as our existence. We have local elections ahead of us. When we take over the municipalities from the trustees, we will again implement multilingual municipalism. Our language is our redline. It is our promise; Whatever these tyrants have destroyed, we will do better. We will open Kurdish courses and nurseries.

 

WE ARE NOT AGAINST ELECTIVE COURSES, WE WANT EDUCATION IN MOTHER LANGUAGE

 

We are not against elective courses. But in the 21st century, we feel shame in these discussions. Mother language is a human right. We want Kurdish to be the official language.

 

We will heal our wounds ourselves. Cure is not in AKP. We are the cure. I would like to end my words with a poem by Cegerxwîn:

 

Ez xum xuma avên çeman

(I am the flowing rivers)

Ez çerx u govend u sema,

(I am wheel of the halay and the sky)

Tînim di nav kat û lema,

(For this reason, with my warmth in every field)

"Jîn im, hebûn im, tevger im..."

(“I'm alive, I exist, I'm active”)

 

SYRIACH, GEORGIAN, ARABIC, ARMENIAN

 

Then DEM Party Mêrdîn deputy George Aslan, Syriac; DEM Party Mêrdîn Deputy Saliha Aydeniz speaks in the Kirmançkî dialect of Kurdish; Bereket Kar, Arabic; Zeynep Bayram, Georgian and Laz; Murat Mıhçı made a greeting in Armenian.