Turkish police raided the Mesopotamian Language and Culture Research Association (MED-DER) and the Payîz Pirtûk bookshop in Diyarbakır (Amed) on Tuesday morning. Reports indicate that several members of the association have been detained, with searches of both the association and the bookshop ongoing. MED-DER has long been a vital institution for the preservation and promotion of the Kurdish language, offering courses in the Kurmanji and Kirmanji dialects.
The raid on MED-DER and the Payîz Pirtûk bookshop has raised serious concerns regarding the systematic repression of Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights in Turkey.
The raids were a “clear indication of the suppression of Kurdish language and culture”, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party said, condemning the raids. “Institutions that defend mother-tongue education and cultural rights have been targeted,” the party added. “You cannot prevent the Kurdish people from protecting their mother tongue with this repressive policy!”
This latest crackdown is part of a wider pattern of hostility towards the Kurdish language. Just days earlier, on 22 September, unidentified assailants vandalised road markings in eastern Turkey’s Elazığ (Xarpêt), blacking out parts of the signage written in Kurdish while leaving the sections in Turkish untouched. The markings, which included Kurdish phrases such as ‘Pêşî Peya’ (meaning pedestrians have priority) and ‘Hêdî’ (meaning slow down), were introduced by the DEM Party’s local council to improve pedestrian and road safety.
