COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Demir Baran’s latest play, performed around Turkey and recently touring Europe, is about the problems that arise when one tries to use the Kurdish language in Turkey.
The theater actor and director said that the Kurdish play "Esa Zimaneki,” meaning “The Difficulties of a Language” in English, mirrors his own life story.
"It's close to my own reality," explained Baran, who spoke to Rudaw in Copenhagen, where the play was recently performed by his theater company, Si. “While Kurdish was earlier completely banned in Turkey, it is now legal. But public cultural centers make excuses for not allowing us to stage our plays as soon as they find out it is in Kurdish."
Baran, who founded Si in 2012 and has since staged plays in many different cities in Turkey and Europe, recalled when it was even more difficult to perform on a Turkish stage in Kurdish.
"Police came and intervened in our plays and did not allow us to perform."
Baran and Si are often still rejected for performances by public cultural centers, and the state does not provide support to promote Kurdish culture. Still, there is progress compared to before 1991, when speaking Kurdish was completely banned, he said.
Adding to his problems are financial difficulties: Si does not belong to either the Turkish government or any Kurdish group, including the Mesopotamian Cultural Centre (MKM), which is seen to be close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Baran said it is difficult for Si to survive economically.
"We are independent, and therefore we find it difficult to reach out to the audience and get our plays advertized. We suffer double discrimination," he said.
"We could choose to belong to a Kurdish political group, but we do not want that," Demir said. “Art should not be political. If we want to perform our art, we should not be under any political control."
Mehmet Necef, associate professor at Southern University in Denmark, explained to Rudaw that in the past years have been many improvements in Kurdish rights in Turkey, which has an estimated population of some 15 million Kurds.
In 2009, the Turkish government launched a Kurdish television channel. And last year, Ankara launched a “democracy package,” which among other things gave the Kurds the right to Kurdish education in private schools, and the use of the letters q, w and x, which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet, but do in Kurdish.
Last month, it was announced that the first Kurdish-language university would open soon in Diyarbakir, where hospitals have begun to provide service in Kurdish. Two weeks ago the first official Turkish-Kurdish dictionary, published by the state-run Turkish Language Association (TDK), went on sale in Turkey.
”In addition, Kurdish theater is not banned in Turkey at all,” Necef stressed, noting that in 2009 the theater group Destar staged the first Kurdish play at the Van State Theater with state permission.
In December 2012, William Shakespeare's famous tragedy "Hamlet" was performed in Kurdish and staged in various parts of the country.
“But Turkish society is still marked by prejudice and reluctance to allow Kurds to use their language,” Necef noted.
“The state consists of different groups. Although the ban on Kurdish is canceled, not everyone complies with the law,” he added.
