Thousands of Kurds from across eastern Turkey marched on Tuesday to the tomb of revered 17th-century poet Ehmedê Xanî in Doğubayazıt (Bazîd), demanding official status for the Kurdish language and the right to education in Kurdish. The demonstration was led by Kurdish cultural organisations, the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), and the Free Women’s Movement (TJA).
Participants travelled from cities including Van (Wan), Ağrı (Agirî), Kars (Armenian: Gars, Kurdish: Qers), Muş (Mûş), Erzurum (Erzerom), Bitlis (Bedlîs), Iğdır (Îdir), and Ardahan (Erdexanê). The crowd gathered outside the DEM Party’s local office in Doğubayazıt before marching toward the historic İshak Paşa Palace and continuing on foot to the Xanî shrine, chanting slogans such as ‘Free language, free society’ and ‘Official status for Kurdish, education in Kurdish’.
The rally was both a cultural pilgrimage and a political protest, aimed at highlighting the continued marginalisation of the Kurdish language in Turkey. Kurdish remains excluded from official and educational settings, despite being spoken by millions.
Heval Dilbahar, co-spokesperson of DEM Party’s Language and Culture Commission, told the crowd: “Kurdish has survived colonial violence and assimilation. This language has resisted – and it has won. We declare here that the policy of linguistic eradication has failed.”
Dilbahar urged the Turkish government to lift all restrictions on Kurdish and to heed jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s past calls for democratic peace. “Language is as essential as bread and water,” Dilbahar said, quoting Öcalan.
The demands included official recognition of Kurdish as a language of instruction from preschool to university, the restoration of Kurdish place names, and constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s cultural and linguistic rights.
‘Long live the Kurdish language’ chants concluded the rally, underlining growing calls among Kurds for linguistic justice amid broader struggles for identity and autonomy.
