İSTANBUL- Associations and institutions working on the protection and the development of Kurdish, which has faced constraints and prohibitions from the past to the present, worked almost as a laboratory. One of the leading institutions among these were İstanbul Kurdish Institute, which was closed down with a statuory decree.

According to the World Language Atlas prepared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a language vanishes from the face of the earth in every two weeks due to the policies or measures not being taken to protect the language. Despite the monist policies of nation states, many languages ​​still survives. Kurdish is one of those languages, which have been resisting against extinction and obsinately maintained their existence.

Despite the invasions they have been exposed to, Kurds managed to protect their existence in the mountainous geography they settled. Another factor which carries a significant role rotecting the language and the culture of Kurds is the story-tellers (çîrokvan) and dengbêj singers. The oral narrators of the sufferings and heroism, çîrokvans and dengbêjs created a historical memory as well as ensuring the vitality of Kurdish people.

The hundreds-of-years-old works by poets and literarians such as Abdussamed-i Babek, Ali Hariri, Melayê Batê, Molla Ahmed-i Cezirî, Feqiyê Teyran and Ehmedê Xanî are the symbols of the wealth that the Kurdish language possesses.

Despite all the restrictions and obstacles since the past, one of the institutions that undertook an important mission to protect and enrich the Kurdish language has been the  Enstîtuya Kurdî ya Stenbolê (Kurdish Institute of Istanbul) founded in Istanbul in April 18, 1992 by Musa Anter, Feqî Hüseyin Sağnıç, İsmail Beşikçi, Abdurrahman Dürre, İbrahim Gürbüz, Cemşîd Bender, Süleyman İnanoğlu and Yaşar Kaya.

LOCKED DOWN WITH STATUORY DECREES

The institute has become a laboratory for Kurdish language with various studies and research conducted both for the oral and written language. Therefore, the institute has become the target and locked down with the Statuory Decree Law issued on December 31, 2016. Komeleya Lêkolînên Kurdî (Kurdish Research Association), which was founded by a group of instructors today, has undertaken the task of the closed Kurdish Institute.

'THE EXISTENCE OF THE OTHER LANGUAGES WERE NOT ACCEPTED'

While explaining their work and effort on protecting Kurdish language, Bilal Yıldız, one of the instructors of Komeleya Lêkolînên Kurdî (Kurdish Research Association) stated that numerous languages face the risk of extinction all around the world due to the monist approach of the nation-states and this approach also reigns in Turkey as well. Yıldız said, "Due to the monist policies, the existence of languages other than Turkish were never accepted. As a result, the language of the Kurds, who are the people naturally belonging to this geography, have also been banned. Mesopotamia had many other languages, but they either went extinct or faced with extinction."

'THEIR PURPOSE IS TO DESTROY THE ETHNICITIES VIA THE LANGUAGES'

Yıldız also stated that destroying the languages, rulers actually  aim to destroy the ethnicities. Yıldız explained this situation as follows: “If you destroy a language, you will destroy that nation. Due to Kurdish question, the Kurdish language and culture has also faced many obstacles and barriers. This is a kind of language genocide. As in every period, as we have witnessed in history and today,  primary attacks target the language. The appointed trustees for the places of the electeds of the Kurdish people are also a good example in this respect. The trustees have first introduced practices aimed at destroying and eliminating the language and culture in the region. For example, the state would have no problem with the Kurds if they would quit speaking Kurdish."

INSISTENCE ON EDUCATION IN MOTHER LANGUAGE

Indicating that regardless of all the practices aiming to destroy the language, it could be said that 'Kurdish has not died', Yıldız emphasized that this is not enough.

Drawing attention to the importance of the insistence on education in mother language Yıldız continued his statements as follows: "State takes no measure to protect the language. Therefore Kurds learn their languages in associations and institutions. In this sense, we organize language courses and academic studies in our study centers. However, these efforts of ours are not enough to solve the problems. We are only trying to make the language survive and not go extinct. In this sense, we call all the authorities to act responsible for the education in mother language and not just for the Kurdish, but for all the ancient languages in Turkey."

MA / Naci Kaya