MP Gülcan Kaçmaz Sayyiğit’s microphone was silenced as she used Kurdish to greet Çarşema Sor, the Yazidi festival, in a recent session of the Turkish Parliament. “Celebrating in Kurdish does not divide the country,” the MP from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party stated.
The session was overseen by Speaker Bekir Bozdağ of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), who emphasised, “In my sessions, the microphone will automatically be turned off if a non-official language is used.”
The enforcement of this rule, which seems to be exclusive for local minority languages rather than English and other international languages, forms part of a broader pattern of the Turkish government’s denial of cultural and linguistic rights to the country’s several autochthonous minorities.
Sayyiğit, who also extended her greetings in Turkish, reinforced the inclusiveness of her message, challenging the notion that multilingual celebrations could fragment national unity.