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Aiming to make Kurdish an official language as well as a language of education in Turkey, a petition campaign which was initiated by the 21 February Language Commission continues ever since its launch in February. The Commission was formed by the Kurdish Language and Culture Network and the Kurdish Language Platform.
Within the scope of the campaign, several Kurdish language courses have also been organised in different places and one of them was organised in Silopi district in Sirnak (Sirnex). Fifteen students have been taking Kurdish language courses over the past three months.
Teacher Aydin Deniz states that some of their students are politicians and some are ordinary members of the public from the district. “Kurds who only speak Turkish also have a role, given that Kurdish is not an official and educational language,” he said. Deniz drew attention to the fact that protecting a language requires speaking it.
“If a person does not protect his/her own language, no one will do it. Kurdish has a historical background and is an ancient language and the Kurdish people should protect their language everywhere. So they should speak it,” he noted.
The 21 February Language Commission is also organising marches in Diyarbakir (Amed), Van (Wan) and Cizre (Cizir) district of Sirnex within the scope of the petition campaign. The first march planned will proceed in Cizre on 3 June with the slogan: “Let the 21st century be the century of the Kurdish language”. Other marches are planned for Van on 4 June and in Diyarbakir on 7 June.
