Kurdish politician and the spokesman for the Kurdish Language Movement in Turkey, Barij Celali, is a Turkey Kurdish political activist whose is originally from the Celali Tribe which was a tribe in the Iranian Kuerdish city of Mako and later migrated to Turkey. The Jalali tribe was one of the Maku tribes that migrated to Turkey. After the Agri events, the tribe was divided and the Xelkan, tribe which is part of the Celali tribe, migrated to Turkey Kurdistan and was settled in the city Idar. As a Kurdish political activist, Barij Celali is currently seeking to recognize the Kurdish language in Turkey. Kurdpress held an interview with the political activist on the situation of the Kurdish language in Turkey. What follows are his answers to KurdPress questions;

What is the state of the Kurdish language in Turkey now? Would you please shed some light on the current political and social situation in Turkey?

I have spoken in Kurdish language with my family since I was a child and for me, in this situation, is a golden opportunity for me. My family is a nationalist one and, for this reason, we have never given up our language or identity. The political and cultural situation of Turkey Kurdistan is very different from the other parts of Kurdistan. There has been a lot of political pressure on Kurdish speaking and teaching in Turkey. Never has the Turkish government made an opportunity to boost the Kurdish language, and it has never given any opportunity in this regard. Along with prohibiting the language, there has always been an attempt to fight against the Kurdish language.

For example, they have changed Kurdish names and family names, the names of mountains, plains and villages, and everything that was in Kurdish has been changed to Turkish. Kurdish language has always been banned since the day Turkey has been established and there have always been assimilation policies against the Kurds. There has been hostile policies against the Kurdish identity since the Mustafa Ismet Inonu (the second Turkish President). They have established Turkmen (run by Turkmen immigrants) military, cultural and political bases in Kurdish and Turkish cities, in order to prevent the development of Kurdish language and identity.

The number of the bases increased gradually and the policy continued into cities to complete the policy of cultural assimilation. Cities (Ardxan, Qars, Azregan, Sivas, Melti, Semsur, Maras, Klis Dillo or Antep) were chosen as the bastion for the process and, unfortunately, the policy is now making its impact and these cities are now under the severe linguistic and cultural impact of Turkish language and identity. It is for more than a hundred years that they both have prohibited the Kurdish language by every means and have denied it. The pressure and the severe assimilation even increased after the development of the media and TV. Unfortunately, during the past twenty years children have not spoken in Kurdish in many Kurdish villages and what is more sorrowful is that today some twenty percent of the people in Diyarbakir, known as the heart of Turkey Kurdistan, speak Kurdish. You would see that all are speaking Turkish if you make a visit to the market, bazaar and cafés.

A great danger is threatening Turkey Kurdistan in terms of identity and language. The goal behind the formation of the Kurdish Language Movement is to confront the danger and the identity and language assimilation in a legitimate and legal way. Our goal is to work against the policy of denial and prohibition legally in order to preserve the Kurdish language. Language is a natural right and the whole world recognizes protecting it. Today, the statistics show that speaking the Kurdish dialects of Kurmanji and Zazaki is 35 percent and this situation is extremely dangerous. Some seven or eight million Kurds are living in large cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir and most of them speak Turkish. Also the percentage of speaking Kurdish has severely decreased in the cities where there are military and cultural bases; especially in the city of Dersim, no one speaks Kurdish nay longer and the city of Diyarbakir is also no exception in this regard.

What are the policies that the government, political parties and cultural institutions are implementing towards the Kurdish language?

There is no right for Kurdish language in Turkey. For example, if someone speaks Kurdish in Turkish parliament, it is typed as an "unknown language" or use the word (X) instead of writing the Kurdish word. And the X is the symbol of an unknown thing. This shows when you speak Kurdish in Turkey, the language cannot be understood because it is not supported in the parliament and the constitution; this is the way that the government looks at Kurdish. On the other hand, when a Kurdish citizen speaks Kurdish language in Turkey big cities, he is attacked and, in some cases, he is even killed. In Sakaria, for example, a while ago, a racist shot and killed a father and child who spoke in Kurdish in the market. Or the last example in Ankara, a eighteen-year-old young man named Baras Cakan was killed by three Turkish teenagers only because he had listened to Kurdish music. This shows that the mindset is not just about the government, but Turkish citizens are under the influence of the government policies.

What measures have Kurdish political and social groups and institutions taken to maintain and promote the Kurdish language in Turkey and what policies will they pursue in the future?

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is influential in Turkey Kurdistan militarily and politically; and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PYD), which is close to the PKK, has not taken any fundamental action for the Kurdish language in Turkey and they have not been able to resolve the Kurdish language issue in the past forty years. Especially in the past eight years and when the HDP changed its political paradigm and declared that it is a Turkish and not a Kurdish party and believes in the brotherhood of the nations, it has not taken a small step for the Kurdish language. The situation is the same with the Huda Par, formerly known as Hezbollah, which laid down its arms and started to act like a legal party. The party, too, has done nothing for the Kurdish language.

For every political or religious program, they gather thousands of people in city squares; but they do nothing for preserving Kurdish language. Only a few groups, small publishing houses, and publications are currently active in Kurdish language. For example, Newbuhar Publications is doing good activities in the field of Kurdish language, as well as Avesta publishing house and a number of other centers. But the role of the Istanbul Institute of Kurdish Language is not very outstanding and does not have much effect on the Kurdish field. This few institutions and centers are not enough to provide the needs of 25 to 30 millions of Kurds in Turkey. On the other hand there are some small Kurdish nationalist parties in Turkey which do not have any power in this field.

So we decided to establish a movement that is not affiliated with any movements and parties, from the PKK and HDP to Huda Par to other movements, is not in favor of violent movements and is operating in the field of Kurdish language. All Kurds are our audiences and everyone who is interested in his or her own language and identity can play a role in this movement. We call on the Kurdish people in Turkey to be vigilant about their own language and identity and do not allow any more assimilation of their Kurdish identity. In fact, any Kurd in any party can be an audience of the Kurdish Language Movement.

Our second audience is all international civil institutions. We do not dedicate our time to prove the Kurds, Kurdish language and identity to the government or the PKK; but the Kurdish nation and the international community are our audiences and we want them to pay attention to this reality. We have a few requests. First, the Kurdish language should be recognized in Turkey because 25 million people speak this language. Second, the Kurdish language should be taught from the elementary level to university. Third, the banned Kurdish names should be allowed and the Kurdish names of cities, towns and villages should be returned. We are trying to achieve these legitimate demands and we continue our activities and are seeking to achieve our goals.

All embassies, consulates and international institutions inside and outside Turkey are our audiences and we want them to know our demands and to accompany us in this way. We are trying to get away from political parties day by day and go back to the people and civil society. We do not want to merely issue statements, but rather we want to continue our activities in the field, along with the people and ask them to join the attempt to preserve and renovate the Kurdish language, a policy which is avoiding extremism and radicalism, and focuses only on the civil society.

Reporter’s code: 50101