Director Altay: We need to reclaim and protect our language

Director Veysi Altay emphasized the importance of developing ways and methods of preserving the Kurdish language, and not leaving it to the mercy of others.

The Kurdish language and culture have been heavily targeted by the trustees appointed to municipalities in Kurdish cities, especially in the last 6 years.

The repression of the Kurdish language continues; plays in Kurdish are banned, Kurdish speakers are subjected to racist attacks.

Director Veysi Altay evaluated the attacks on Kurdish language, culture and art to ANF.

Altay stated that attacks have continued since the establishment of the Turkish Republic, but this has become more visible in recent years.

Plays in Kurdish are banned just because of the language

Noting that attacks on Kurdish culture did not increase with trustees, but that these attacks, which have always existed, only started to become more visible in recent years, Altay said that “because the internet is becoming more and more widespread and people can follow everything with their mobile phones and share it easily, attacks can enter our agenda more quickly. The attacks of the state are now beyond its own laws. While this was the case in public, this racist and monist mentality spread to the society as well. This can happen in any area of your life. Even when a played is performed in Kurdish, it faces a reaction or ban just because of the language, regardless of the content of the play. As you know, Dario Fo’s play ‘Bêrû’ was recently banned by Gaziosmanpaşa District Governor’s Office. They could very easily ban a play written maybe 100 years before the PKK. They also shamelessly said that this is ‘terrorist propaganda’.”

Emphasizing that the attack on language and culture aims to destroy a society, Altay continued: “If you take away the language, culture and land of a society, you can destroy it. That’s why the biggest attacks take place through language. The Kurds have resisted these attempts and insisted on speaking and working in their language, but it is not enough. I even have to give a personal review today. Are we dealing with enough language? Can we emphasize how important the mother tongue is? Are our institutions and politicians doing enough to get future generations to speak this language? I would definitely answer ‘no’ to these questions. First of all, we need to protect our own culture and mother tongue.”

Attacks may weaken our language

Underlining that Kurdish society should show sensitivity to the Kurdish language before anyone else, Altay added: “Sometimes, we can translate our meetings of hundreds of people into Turkish very easily for someone who does not speak Kurdish. When we postpone our language in every field, this time we narrow ourselves down. Who will protect our language and culture when we do this? If we protect and develop our language, attacks will also weaken. If trustees turn to signs in Kurdish when they first arrive, this is a little related to the way Kurdish has come. The trustee may have been Kurdish, but he still attacked his own language. Therefore, first of all, we have to insist on our own culture and language. We need to develop ways and means of preserving our language, and not leave it at the mercy of others. Because if our language is completely taken from us, the political struggle will be incomplete.”