PJAK (Free Life Party of Kurdistan) issued a written statement on the occasion of 21 February Mother Language Day.
The statement remarked that the existence and culture of the Kurds are under threat due to the war waged by the dominant states across the four parts of Kurdistan, saying: “Protecting the Kurdish language and national identity is an essential part of our nation’s struggle for democracy and freedom. Even if it is not explicitly included in a written agreement, speaking and receiving education in one’s mother tongue is a lifelong human right. As PJAK, we celebrate this day and emphasize the necessity of life in the mother tongue.”
Emphasizing that for more than a century there has been a struggle to preserve the existence of the Kurdish language and to prevent policies of cultural genocide, the statement continued: “The Third World War centered in the Middle East and Kurdistan is ongoing, and these states are attempting to complete the final phase of genocidal wars. The dominant states in the four parts of Kurdistan have developed a policy of denial over the past century, during which Kurdistan has continuously been turned into a site of war and comprehensive genocide.
Our people’s roadmap against this attack is democracy against fascism. Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) has today given the struggle a rational political and organized character within the framework of the ‘Peace and Democratic Society’ process and has formulated it through the procedure of ‘democratic integration.’ In this process, the demand for the official recognition of the mother tongue for our people and for all other nations is one of the primary objectives. Denialist forces cannot distance the Kurdish nation from its struggle through threats of war, intimidation, and policies of destruction.”
The statement underlined that the dangers have not entirely ended and stressed the necessity of uniting cultural struggle with political struggle. It noted that Iran and Turkey, as two systems of cultural and linguistic denial, are at a historic turning point.
PJAK stated that a new process must be initiated in which the political and cultural rights of the Kurds are officially recognized, and that the Kurdish people must gain political status alongside other nations in the new Middle Eastern order: “After the 1957 Revolution, the Kurds were deprived of fundamental rights such as the right to life, the right to education, and the right to use their mother tongue. A large portion of our nation’s energy, which could have been devoted to development, was instead spent fighting the policies of denial. Our people, through civil and cultural organizations and centers in Rojhilat (Eastern) Kurdistan, waged an important struggle for the development and protection of the Kurdish language. We regard and respect these efforts, through which our language has been preserved, as valuable cultural struggles.”
The statement concluded: “As PJAK, we celebrate Mother Language Day for the Kurdish people in particular and for all oppressed peoples, and we call on our people to intensify the struggle to protect the Kurdish language. Every home and every space should become a school where the Kurdish language is preserved. This is the duty and responsibility of us all. By protecting the Kurdish language, we can develop and safeguard our cultural rights.”
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