On Kurdish Language Day, political parties and human rights groups have reiterated demands for Kurdish to be recognised as an official and educational language in Turkey, highlighting decades of systemic suppression and calling for constitutional reforms as part of the emerging peace framework in the country.
In statements marking 15 May, the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, the Human Rights Association (İHD) and the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) described the denial of Kurdish as a form of long-standing cultural genocide and urged the Turkish state to take concrete steps to guarantee linguistic rights.
In its written statement, the DBP emphasised that Kurdish has been systematically erased throughout the history of the Turkish Republic:
“The policies of denial and hostility against the Kurdish language have reached the second century of the republic as a state policy. The refusal of education in mother tongue is the clearest manifestation of this denial.”
The party stressed that the protection and promotion of Kurdish is not only about cultural survival but a matter of democratic existence.
The DEM Party’s Commission on Language, Culture and Arts, represented by Cemile Turhallı and Heval Dilbahar, also condemned assimilationist language policies:
“Nation-states opposed to democracy have imposed monolingualism. But the Kurdish people have resisted these policies and ensured that the Kurdish language is not forgotten.”
They further referred to the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s writings on the political and cultural importance of language, underscoring the demand that Kurdish be made an official language and a language of education.
In a separate statement, the İHD said linguistic discrimination is a violation of fundamental rights:
“Everyone must enjoy human rights and freedoms without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, language, or origin. We remember with respect our member Vedat Aydın, who was imprisoned and later murdered for speaking in Kurdish at our general assembly. As human rights defenders, we will continue to demand the freedom of all languages.”
The Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), a Brussels-based pan-umbrella Kurdish organisation with regional offices within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and northeastern Syria’s Rojava region, described Kurdish as the memory and identity of the Kurdish nation and issued a call for global solidarity:
“The Kurdish people have resisted cultural genocide for a century—from colonial times to today’s occupation. Through great sacrifices, they have kept their language alive. Kurdish is the identity of our nation.”
The statement hailed 15 May as a day of celebration and struggle, calling on the global Kurdish diaspora to expand efforts to defend linguistic rights across all continents.
Kurdish Language Day is celebrated on 15 May in recognition of the publication of the first issue of Hawar magazine on this day in 1932. Edited by Celadet Alî Bedirxan, a leading figure of modern Kurdish thought and language reform, Hawar played a foundational role in standardising the Kurdish language. Building on the legacy of Kurdistan newspaper, first published in 1898 by Miqdad Midhat Bedirxan, Hawar introduced a Latin-based Kurdish alphabet and became a critical platform for Kurdish cultural expression and intellectual resistance.
The day symbolises not only the struggle to preserve the Kurdish language, but also the enduring connection between language, identity, and collective memory in the Kurdish national movement.
These declarations come at a time when Turkey is facing renewed calls for peace following the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) disarmament and the launch of new efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue through political means. Activists and politicians argue that a meaningful peace must include structural reforms, including the full recognition of Kurdish language rights in public life and education.
