Kurdish people should “decorate every house, neighbourhood and living space with national colours”, the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) have said in a call to protect Kurdish language and culture against racist attacks by the Turkish state.
“The murders, massacres and lootings of the fascist Turkish state against the Kurds have not stopped, even against dancing young Kurds who are imprisoned,” the KNK said in their statement.
“If this continues and we remain silent, the racist agenda will expand, even punishing our elders for not being able to speak Turkish. This is the beginning of a new wave of fascism and racism,” the Kurdish umbrella organisation said, adding, “The fascist Republic of Turkey wants to wipe out the achievements of our century-long struggle.”
Highlighting the importance of language, literature and art for a nation’s existence, the KNK said that if these attacks are successful then the “[Kurdish] nation will inevitably fade away and disappear from history.”
The “most serious massacre” that the Turkish state has inflicted upon the Kurds has been “the assimilation of the Kurdish people and other non-Turkish people, which leads to the destruction of their national and human values,” the KNK argued.
The KNK’s statement comes after nine Kurdish youths in Mersin, southern Turkey, were formally arrested on charges of “making terrorist organisation propaganda”. The youths were initially detained on 22 July after being targeted in a racist campaign for sharing a video on social media showing them dancing to a Kurdish song and chanting slogans on Mersin beach on 16 June. The arrests, coming more than a month later, have been criticised as part of a racist campaign against what many consider a fabricated crime.
“It is essential that Kurdish institutions, intellectuals and politicians as well as the […] Kurdish people as a whole take a patriotic stance against the actions of the racist state,” the KNK added. Concluding their statement, the KNK said “Every home, camp and living space should be filled with culture, art, literature, folklore and folk dances in order to strengthen our national spirit”.
