The KCK Education Committee issued a statement about the recent wave of attacks on Kurdish culture and language.

The statement said: "The way in which they approach Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan], is the same approach they take towards the Kurdish people. The isolation of Rêber Apo and the attacks against the existence, language, and culture of the Kurdish people cannot be considered independently of each other. The occupying Turkish state is waging a multi-faceted war against the Kurdish people. And severe political, economic, social, military, and cultural attacks are launched at them. Against all these attacks, Rêber Apo, the freedom guerrillas, and the peoples of Kurdistan continue an unprecedented resistance.

The Kurdish people did not bow down or kneel down despite all attempts at occupation and genocidal attacks. The Kurdish people continue their struggle with a strong will that draws its strength from the resistance of Rêber Apo and the freedom guerrillas. For over a hundred years, the Turkish state has been carrying out all kinds of inhumane attacks to destroy thousands of years of ancient culture."

The statement underlined that "since the establishment of the fascist republic, the Kurdish people have suffered many genocides. Village and city names were changed, Kurdish children’s names were banned, speaking Kurdish was banned from all areas of life, national clothes were banned, and everything related to Kurds was banned. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, arrested, subjected to brutal torture, and murdered, but the Kurdish people did not surrender. For over a hundred years, the Kurdish people have been resisting all forms of genocide and assimilation. For over a hundred years now, the Turkish state has been failing in its attempts to occupy and colonize Kurdistan, and it will never succeed in its attempts. The Kurdish people have always risen from their ashes.

Today again, the Turkish state, particularly the AKP-MHP government, acts under the slogan “one language, one flag, one nation, one state” and wants to eliminate and destroy all different colors and voices within the country. They are once again trying to remove the Kurdish language from all areas of life. They seemingly cannot tolerate the Kurdish language. They are hostile to it and to the people. In the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the Kurdish language is still defined as 'an unknown language, a language that is not understood.'

Kurdish youth who sing Kurdish songs and dance the govend are arrested, and schools, teachers, and municipalities are investigated for teaching Kurdish children in their mother tongue, like in the recent example of the multilingual Zarokistan Nursery and Day Care Centres of Amed (tr. Diyarbakir). If two Kurdish words are written on a traffic street, they are immediately painted over by gangs affiliated with the state. They closed down the Kurdish-language education institution, Kurdish libraries, and detained and arrested dozens of Kurdish teachers, employees, and laborers."

The statement added: "The assimilation policies against the Kurdish people have been carried out very strongly for years. They want to eliminate the Kurdish people. Language and culture form the existence and essence of a people. If a nation loses its language and culture, it cannot survive and will disappear. In the fifth volume of his ‘Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization’, called ‘Defending the Kurds in the grip of cultural genocide,’ Rêber Apo evaluates assimilation as follows: “The purpose of assimilation is to provide slaves for the mechanism of exploitation and power at the lowest cost. Those who are assimilated lose their identity, and their power of resistance is broken. They are prepared to become useful slaves. Useful slaves have to look 100 percent like their master. They will do anything to be the tail of their master. Those without conscience, without morals, and without consciousness compete in slavery. They have no free decision or action. They betray their identity and turn into an animal disguised as a human being, seeking only to fill their bellies.”

The occupying and genocidal Turkish state wants the Kurds to disappear. For this, it resorts to all kinds of dirty methods. They say ‘Kurds are our brothers’ but occupy Kurdistan’s lands, commit massacres and openly live their racism. They abuse the name Ehmede Khani û Feqiye Teyran many times to hide their racism. We must resolutely, stubbornly, and persistently defend our identity and language against oppression policies. A struggle is necessary for the Kurdish language and Kurdish education. If we do not want to be assimilated and disappear, we need to stand against assimilation, raise the struggle, and raise our children with the Kurdish language, Kurdish way of life, and Kurdish culture. As our people express in their slogans, ‘Our language is our existence’, so we must protect our existence. No one shall threaten our existence as a people."

The statement continued: "All intellectuals, academics, writers, patriots, and democratic forces in Kurdistan and Turkey must protect the Kurdish language and culture. They can only be protected if the Kurdish language is used in all areas of life. If Kurdish is spoken in every home, in every village, street, city, workplace, parliament, municipality, university, and all schools, markets, shops, cafés, programs, televisions, and radios, we will paralyze the fascism of the invaders and genocide makers. We will drown fascism in Kurdish sentences and stories, literature, and songs. With the understanding of Kurdish everywhere, we will break the power and strength of Turkish fascism that wants to eliminate the Kurds. AKP-MHP fascism is afraid of the Kurdish language. They know that as long as the Kurdish language exists, they cannot break the will of the Kurds.

As long as Kurds speak their own language and receive education in their mother tongue, they cannot destroy Kurds. Language is the origin and existence of Kurds. They want to destroy this spirit. They are afraid of the spirit of free Kurds. The Kurdish people must continue their struggle for the protection and development of the Kurdish language in a stronger and broader way. All work should be done in Kurdish; Kurdish should be spoken everywhere."