HDP Siirt deputy Prof. Dr. Kadri Yıldırım held a press conference at the Parliament in which he commented on the rejection of the first parliamentary question submitted in Kurdish and the importance of mother-tongue education with regards to the Kurdish question.

Yıldırım said diversities in the Turkish Republic have long been subjected to a systematic assimilation, denial and annihilation policy, due to which cruel policies primarily on Kurdish and other languages have been pursued for years now.

Drawing attention to the importance of mother-tongue education for the Kurds, Yıldırım said “Even if you take the most progressive steps for the Kurds, yet they will have no meaning unless education in mother tongue is ensured”.

'A TOTAL SHAME'

According to Yıldırım, those talking about the 'fraternity of a thousand years' will now prove their sincerity by defending the right to education in Kurdish. He highlighted that; “When the labour and contribution of the Kurds during the founding of the country is this much obvious, today we cannot even come up with a solution to the issue of mother-tongue education, which is a purely pedagogical matter, let alone talking about self-governance. This kind of basic and legitimate demands are continuously being terrorized. The old story of 'our religion is being lost', which was used as a means of repression of rights in the past, is now being resumed with the story of 'our land is being lost'. However, demands such as Kurdish education, autonomy and constitutional guarantee are a must of contemporary democracy. In this age when humans travel to space, deprival of Kurds of the right to mother-tongue education is a total shame.”

Criticising the words of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asking to Kurds “What do you lack?” and Turkish PM Davutoğlu’s remarks that Kurds can now lament in their mother language, Yıldırım said Erdoğan gained political benefits over the issue of Kurdish education. He also reacted to the un-assignment of Kurdish teacher candidates for school service.

'WEBSITE OF THE PARLIAMENT SERVES IN 8 LANGUAGES EXCLUDING KURDISH'

“Do you find it conscientiously acceptable that only 12 Kurdish teachers have been assigned so far ?” asked Yıldırım and recalled that he had submitted the first parliamentary question in Kurdish at the beginning of September. He pointed out that the motion was in fact a self-defense drawing attention to the importance of education in mother tongue and the unjust treatment towards Kurdish teachers.

HDP MP remarked that the motion in Kurdish was officially received by the parliament, put in process for referral to the Ministry of Education, and even uploaded on the website of the parliament, but was later cancelled, hastily removed from the website and returned to the HDP parliamentary group once it was noticed to have been written in Kurdish on the grounds that 'it was not understood'.

“For God's sake, what is this rush? Does the website of the parliament, which provides service in 8 languages, have no place for the Kurdish language?”, he asked.