The Kurdish Social Sciences Research Association (Amed Kurdish Institute) held an event to launch a series of storybooks prepared for pre-school children. The event, held at the institute’s premises in Kayapınar district, attracted considerable interest from representatives of civil society organisations and residents who attended with their children. Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Emin Ay, DBB Assembly Co-Spokespersons Demet Ceylan and Ayhan Karatekin, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Provincial Co-Chairs Ruçem Vefa Elyakut and Ahmet Doğan, district municipality co-mayors and numerous invited guests attended the event.

Thanks to Those Working to Promote Mother-Tongue Education

Speakers at the event highlighted that the work was the product of those who have worked to preserve and pass on the cultural heritage handed down from the past to the present. Emphasising the importance of such initiatives in the fields of language and culture, they thanked everyone who had contributed to the project.

The speakers said they had launched the project because they wanted children to be able to read and understand in their own language, adding that they were continuing the work to ensure that children and parents did not face difficulties in accessing resources.

‘Language Is Also the Memory of Societies and Nations’

Speaking at the event, Co-Mayor Ay thanked those who had prepared the work, saying: “I am very happy to have been invited to this event. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this work. I see myself as a member of the Kurdish Institute.”

Stating that the protection of mother tongues is directly linked to social rights, Co-Mayor Ay said that language forms the foundation of culture, art and history, adding:

“If we do not protect our language, we cannot secure any of our rights. Language is the foundation of art, culture and history, as well as the memory of societies and nations.”

‘Forgetting Your Mother Tongue Means Forgetting These Things Too’

Co-Mayor Ay also drew attention to the relationship between language and ecology, saying that the loss of words and concepts in a language could also lead to the loss of knowledge about the natural world.

Co-Mayor Ay continued:

“If a language disappears, if a word or concept disappears from a language, this also has an impact on ecology. Some people may ask, ‘What does the mother tongue have to do with ecology?’ This has been scientifically demonstrated. We know that throughout history, all medicines were made from herbs and plants, and there were no ecological disasters. Every plant had a name. Forgetting your mother tongue means forgetting these things too. This also makes societies dependent on pharmaceutical medicines. It brings consequences and harm with it.”

‘Kurdish Is Fully Capable of Being Used at All Levels of Education’

Criticising claims that Kurdish is not a pedagogical or academic language, Co-Mayor Ay stressed that Kurdish is fully capable of being used at every stage of education. Co-Mayor Ay said:

“Some people, in the name of writing or politics, say that Kurdish is not a language of pedagogy. They claim that ‘you cannot provide education in Kurdish as a pedagogical language’. No. It has now been demonstrated throughout the world on behalf of the Kurdish people that from kindergarten to university, Kurdish is fully capable of being used across all areas of education, in all books and all subjects, once the restrictions on Kurdish are lifted. In other words, the Kurdish language does not have such a problem.”

‘They Must Abandon These Wrong Policies’

Referring to policies concerning the Kurdish language, Co-Mayor Ay called on the authorities to take action, saying: “We call on all the authorities: they must immediately abandon these wrong policies.”

‘Our Mothers Lulled Us to Sleep with Lullabies’

Co-Mayor Ay also highlighted the importance of passing Kurdish from one generation to the next within families, recalling that mothers had raised their children with Kurdish lullabies. Ay said:

“Our mothers lulled us to sleep with lorîs (lullabies). Any mother or father who does not speak Kurdish with their child and does not say ‘lorî lorî’ to them is doing their child a great injustice.”

Books Distributed to Residents

At the end of the event, 20 different children’s books prepared in Kurmanji and Zazaki were distributed to residents and children attending the programme.