VAN - Women of Van commented on the Kurdish Language Day celebrated annually on May 15 and said, “Teach your children your native language. The children don’t know their native language grow up without self-confidence. Women must speak Kurdish language in the streets, at home and government agencies against assimilation policies.”

 

May 15, the day Kurdish literature, art and philosophy magazine Hawar started publication by linguist Celadet Ali Bedirxan in 1932, has been celebrated as Kurdish Language Celebration Day since 2006. The celebrations for the Kurdish Language Day have been banned for two years on the ground of the state of emergency. As the women’s insistence doesn’t recognize the bans on their native language, the assimilation politics of ruling power expose the Kurdish people to be disappeared. Kurdish language teacher Elif Gemicioğlu commented on the bans on the Kurdish language and the importance of the Kurdish Language Day as follows; “The assimilation policies on the Kurdish language in Turkey is going on. The bans on the Kurdish language are increasing day by day. But the people react to this. The language is not only thing actually destroyed by the bans. The community is also destroyed. Everything is being tried to be monolithic.”

 

‘Multi-language against one-language’

 

Stating that the ruling power has tried the Kurdish children to accept the Turkish language for years, Elif said, “The Kurdish people have improved their language in the streets and at homes with their own means for years. A big attack has been carried out against the language. The conditions of the state of emergency were carried out in 1990s. Despite that, we kept our struggle for our language. The torture against those who speak the Kurdish language has continued. We should instill multi-language cultures to our children against one-language produced by monist mindset.”

 

‘Teach your children your native language’

 

Emphasizing that the people should speak their native language with their children, Medine Işık said, “My mother is a Kurdish, my father is a Kurdish and I am a Kurdish. Particularly women should speak Kurdish language with their children. The children cannot speak their native language have difficulties to learn other languages. We can keep our language alive by speaking it.”

 

‘The people who do not know their own language are faced with disappearing’

 

Muhabbet Uçar also commented on the Kurdish Language Day and she said, “Our language is our existence. Ignoring a language is actually ignoring the people. We are Kurdish and our language is Kurdish language. Although our existence is divided into four parts, we can unite by standing up for our native language. The children, who don’t know their native language, grow up without self-confidence. Women must speak Kurdish language in the streets, at home and government agencies against assimilation policies.”