WAN – Responding to the Turkish Parliament’s recent Kurdish-language post on its official X account following Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş’s speech in Amed (Diyarbakır), Birhat Duman, an executive of the Kurdish Language and Culture Development Association (KURDÎGEH), said: “Kurds will not accept this double approach. The real solution is to remove the barriers before the Kurdish language.”
During the 2025–2026 Academic Year opening ceremony at Dicle University, Parliament Speaker and Chair of the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission Numan Kurtulmuş held several meetings regarding the Kurdish question. His remarks at the ceremony, “Bi hev re bibin dil bi dil, dest bi dest; aşîtî li nav me ra be (Be united, heart to heart, hand in hand; let peace prevail among us)”, were later shared on the Parliament’s official X account, drawing criticism.
The same institution still records Kurdish as an “unknown language” in parliamentary minutes and recently prevented Peace Mothers from speaking Kurdish, which many called a “contradictory and symbolic gesture.”
Duman stated that the government’s words and actions do not align: “During election periods, Kurdish songs are played and Kurdish speeches are made at rallies, but when a Kurd demands official recognition or status for their language, chaos breaks out. This alone is a major contradiction. The state must take genuine and consistent steps.”
Recalling that one of the key aspects of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s peace initiative was addressing the Kurdish people’s fundamental demands, Duman added: “One of the essential pillars of resolving the Kurdish question is removing all obstacles to the Kurdish language.”
Duman stressed that Kurds would not accept “dual approaches” and called on youth to take responsibility: “Anyone who says ‘I am Kurdish’ and claims to struggle for Kurdish identity must also embrace the Kurdish language consciously. Using Kurdish in daily life is part of preserving our identity.”
MA / Ceylan Sahinli