Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Doğan Hatun attended a panel entitled “Mıgırdiç Dikranyan of Diyarbakır and Kurdish Texts in Armenian Script” and underlined their commitment to preserving the city’s multilingual and multicultural heritage.

The panel, organised by the Department of Culture and Social Affairs as part of the 21 February International Mother Language Day events, was held at Surp Giragos Church. Alongside the Co-Mayor, the event was attended by Sur Municipality Co-Mayor Adnan Örhan, Head of the Department of Culture and Social Affairs Zeynep Yaş, representatives of civil society organisations and linguists. The panel, moderated by Prof. Dr Bülent Bilmez, featured speakers Abdurrahman Yiğitalp, Artun Gebenlioğlu, İrfan Çağatay, Serhat Bozkurt and Tahir Baykuşak.

Co-Mayor Hatun: We Will Keep Multilingualism Alive

Before the panel began, Co-Mayor Doğan Hatun greeted the audience with an opening speech. Stressing that Diyarbakır is a Kurdish city but also a multilingual one, he said: “We will keep multilingualism alive. Our culture and the historical monuments in this city are the clearest examples of this plurality. This has been handed down to us as a legacy.”

‘We Will Safeguard Dikranyan’s Legacy’

Co-Mayor Hatun stated: “It is our duty to carry this heritage, with its thousands of years of history, thousands of years into the future.” He explained that Mıgırdiç Dikranyan wrote his work in Kurdish using Armenian letters with this awareness, passing on this culture as a legacy. Hatun underlined the need to protect and pass on the legacy created by Dikranyan to future generations, adding that they aimed to nurture the city’s multilingual culture and share it with the world.

‘Why Are Our Languages on the Verge of Extinction?’

Hatun noted that the municipality had opened courses in various languages, and continued: “It is particularly important to protect and develop Syriac and Zazaki, which are at risk of extinction. History places this responsibility upon us. To break the long-standing policies of assimilation, we must preserve this multilingualism. Mother tongue education should take place not only in homes but also in schools. Why are our languages facing extinction? We must reflect on this carefully. For hundreds of years mothers have carried these languages to this level; we too must shoulder this responsibility.”

Dikranyan’s Literary Life and His Perspective on Language

Following Co-Mayor Hatun’s speech, the panel highlighted that Mıgırdiç Dikranyan, an intellectual clergyman, was a son of Diyarbakır and that the texts published in 1866 were written in the Kurdish of Diyarbakır as spoken today. It was noted that the work, produced through the collaboration of academics at Bilgi University, was the result of a collective effort and in fact encompassed alphabets, languages and collective identities.

During the panel, Dikranyan’s biography, literary life and perspective on language were presented. It was also explained that, in the process of publishing the work, the team undertook studies on the challenges encountered, such as how the letters used in Armenian were represented in Latin script.

A Guiding Source for Academics

Tahir Baykuşak, Head of the Department of Language Development and Protection at the Metropolitan Municipality, who was part of the team that prepared the work and hosted the panel, stated that they were working with a very valuable team and that the text produced could be evaluated from many angles — religious, sociological and historical.

Recalling the words of Mıgırdıç Hirimyan, who became patriarch in the 1870s and once said, “I will no longer be here as the voice of Istanbul-centred Armenians, but as the voice of the rural Armenians,” Baykuşak emphasised that the 19th century was a highly contentious period, and that this also applied to works in different scripts produced at that time. He noted that the 19th century was a period when Kurdish and Turkish texts in Armenian script were particularly prevalent.

Baykuşak underlined that the work presented would serve as a source in the field of linguistics, opening the way for academics to produce research at universities, including master’s and doctoral theses.