Page 306 - America's Failure to Perceive the PKK

3. Kurdish as the native language: A tactic, or
a necessity?

It is obvious that the issue labeled as "Kurdish as the native

language" is quite a sensitive matter for some
of our Kurdish brothers. Many mothers and
fathers speak only Kurdish in the Southeast,
and many are concerned that their primary
language would be lost on that account. Such
concern seems to be reasonable in view of the
practices in Turkey's history in having the
Kurdish language forgotten, and casting off
people who speak or write in Kurdish, even

having gone so far as to imprison them in the
past. As we will see in the following parts, the
Ergenekon terror organization also tyran-
nized our Kurdish brothers on vari-
ous matters, including the use
of the Kurdish language.

Let us make one point:
Making Kurdish forgotten as a
language or casting it off will
never be encountered in this
country again as we will defi-

nitely never allow this to hap-
pen. On the contrary, Kurdish
should be spoken a great deal
more as an important value of
Recent steps taken in regard to the
Kurdish language, especially the Kur-
dish translation of the Qur'an printed
by the Directorate of Religious Affa-
irs are very important and gratifying
improvements.

304 America's Failure to Perceive the PKK