Tens of thousands marked International Mother Language Day
Tens of thousands marked International Mother Language Day
Tens of thousands of Kurds held a huge demonstration to mark UNESCO's International Mother Language Day in Diyarbakýr.
Organization to Preserve Kurdish Language (TZPKurdi) organized a demonstration in Diyarbakir today. Head of BDP's local organization M. Ali Aydýn, KURDI-DER's director Burhan Zorooglu and BDP deputy Hamir Geylani led the crowd of tens of thousands.
Dressed in Kurdish national clothes Kurdish women also participated in the demonstration and called Turkish government to stop all the restrictions on the use of Kurdish language. Demonstrators held banners reading “without mother language there is no life”
KURDÝ-DERs Rifat Ozturk read the joint statement of the NGO's and institutions supporting the demonstration.
Ozturk said there is an ongoing denial of Kurdish language since the creation of Turkish Republic about 80 years ago. He criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's approach to the Kurdish Question and his defence of the motto of Turkish state: “One Language, One Nation”.
He mentioned Erdogan's statement about cultural rights of Turkish immigrants in Germany where he labelled assimilation as a “crime against humanity” and called Turkish government to recognise linguistic rights of Kurdish people in Turkey.
Ozturk also called the Turkish courts to recognize the rights of Kurdish politicians whose requests to make defence speeches in Kurdish were denied.
“Like all the other nations and communities mother language is sacred and one of the basic values of the society for the Kurdish people” he said.
BDP deputy Hamit Geylani also made a speech saying that the trial of Kurdish politicians in Diyarbakir is a trial where Kurdish languge is being tried. Saying that Turkey's signatures to the international conventions in which linguistic rights of the communities are under guarantee of law does not mean anything Geylani mentioned that the struggle of Kurdish people for their language will go on.
“There will be no freedom until or language is free” he said.
Organization to Preserve Kurdish Language (TZPKurdi) organized a demonstration in Diyarbakir today. Head of BDP's local organization M. Ali Aydýn, KURDI-DER's director Burhan Zorooglu and BDP deputy Hamir Geylani led the crowd of tens of thousands.
Dressed in Kurdish national clothes Kurdish women also participated in the demonstration and called Turkish government to stop all the restrictions on the use of Kurdish language. Demonstrators held banners reading “without mother language there is no life”
KURDÝ-DERs Rifat Ozturk read the joint statement of the NGO's and institutions supporting the demonstration.
Ozturk said there is an ongoing denial of Kurdish language since the creation of Turkish Republic about 80 years ago. He criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's approach to the Kurdish Question and his defence of the motto of Turkish state: “One Language, One Nation”.
He mentioned Erdogan's statement about cultural rights of Turkish immigrants in Germany where he labelled assimilation as a “crime against humanity” and called Turkish government to recognise linguistic rights of Kurdish people in Turkey.
Ozturk also called the Turkish courts to recognize the rights of Kurdish politicians whose requests to make defence speeches in Kurdish were denied.
“Like all the other nations and communities mother language is sacred and one of the basic values of the society for the Kurdish people” he said.
BDP deputy Hamit Geylani also made a speech saying that the trial of Kurdish politicians in Diyarbakir is a trial where Kurdish languge is being tried. Saying that Turkey's signatures to the international conventions in which linguistic rights of the communities are under guarantee of law does not mean anything Geylani mentioned that the struggle of Kurdish people for their language will go on.
“There will be no freedom until or language is free” he said.
