HDP’s Oluç calls for concrete steps to protect endangered languages

HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) Group Deputy Chair Saruhan Oluç held a press conference in the Parliament to mark February 21 International Mother Language Day.

“Today is February 21, International Mother Language Day, which was introduced in 2000. The main aim was to promote cultural diversity and multilingualism. According to a UNESCO report, 2,500 languages ​​in the world and 18 languages ​​in Turkey are about to die out. What have the governments in Turkey ever done for the International Mother Language Day, recognized by the UN, of which Turkey is a member? They did nothing for the 18 languages ​​spoken in Turkey that are endangered. The Turkish governments have remained insincere and hypocritical. They have recently introduced elective courses in Kurdish. We say that elective courses can be introduced, but the main goal is education in mother tongue, a right possessed by children.

The government has started to offer elective courses in Kurdish, yet government-appointed trustee mayors do the opposite. This happens because of the fact that the government is not sincere. The government considers elective courses as an investment in the coming elections. It does not offer elective courses in Kurdish because it respects the Kurdish people’s mother tongue and cares about its development. However, multilingualism is promoted all over the world. In Turkey, the demand for mother tongue is designated as separatism. Why? No country has ever been divided by the official recognition of a mother tongue. Therefore, we emphasize once again how important mother tongue education is.

The government banned the daily Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat after the July 15 coup attempt. What did Azadiya Welat have to do with the coup attempt? The Kurdish paper had nothing to do with the failed coup. The government banned televisions, news agencies, magazines, radios, Kurdish publishing houses.  It closed a primary school, the KURDI-DER and the Istanbul Kurdish Institute. Language institutions had not been banned even during the darkest periods of the ’90s. Furthermore, the government demolished the statues of prominent figures such as Ehmedê Xanî, Cigerxwîn and Mehmet Uzun who all worked for the Kurdish language in the Kurdish regions. Trustee mayors appointed by the government have removed their names from public sphere.

Services in all fields, particularly in education and health, should be provided in mother tongue in accordance with the multilingual and multicultural sociological structure of Turkey and the equality principle in the constitution. We emphasize this in particular; all languages ​in Turkey should be allowed to be spoken in the public sphere. It is essential to take concrete steps to protect endangered languages, to reinforce academic institutions which focus on mother tongue studies and to remove the reservation in the article 3 of the convention on the rights of the children concerning the mother tongue.”