Kurdish writer in Turkey fights to save Zazaki dialect with children’s books
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish writer in Istanbul has published a unique set of 20 short stories aiming to teach both the Zazaki and Kurmanji dialects of Kurdish to children, saving the former from extinction.
“The Kurdish language is under great threat in northern Kurdistan,” writer Kerem Tekoglu told Rudaw English late Monday, referring to Kurdish-majority areas in southeast Turkey.
Born in Diyarbakir (Amed) in 1984, Tekoglu has been living in Istanbul city in recent years. Unable to find sponsors, the writer published the series out of his own pocket in an attempt to preserve what he says is a dialect on the verge of extinction.
“There are plenty of people like me who protect the Kurmanji dialect but unfortunately the Zazaki dialect is almost dead … If we do not act, the Zazaki dialect will no longer be spoken in northern Kurdistan.”
“This pushes me to work on the Kurdish language. Children determine the fate of a language. Therefore, we have to begin with children.”
"Ciroken Gule" (Gule’s Stories) introduces young readers to Kurdish historical figures through the main character, Gule. Designed for children aged up to nine, the series also teaches children the Kurdish lifestyle and how to respect their elders, according to Tekoglu, who has published 2,500 copies of his new collection. Each page is written in Kurmanji, followed by the same text in Zazaki.
“My aim is to make Kurdish children see these Kurdish figures as their ancestors,” said the writer, adding that he did not include political figures in this series, but is planning a separate collection on them for the future.
The figures are from all four parts of greater Kurdistan, referring to Kurdish-majority areas in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran divided between the countries under the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement.
Kurds, who make up more than 15 million of Turkey’s population, have been deprived of their mother tongue in public settings. Their children are only taught Turkish but optional and non-binding Kurdish lessons are taught in some schools, rarely attended due to a lack of teachers and resources.
The writer himself is a Kurmanji speaker, the dominant dialect among Turkey’s Kurds. Zazaki is mostly spoken in Bingol, Tunceli (Dersim), Elazig (Kharpet) and parts of Amed.
Kemal Yildiz, a lecturer in Zaza language and literature at Munzur in Dersim told Rudaw English that such books are “very valuable.”
“Writing one or more dialects together will contribute to the development and spread of the language. It will build bridges between languages and dialects.”
There are no reliable estimates on the number of Zazaki speakers in Turkey. The Turkish government mostly treats Zazaki as a distinct language, as do some of the Zaza, but most believe that Zazaki is Kurdish dialect.
The publication of the books comes as Kurds in Turkey petition to make Kurdish an official language in Turkey. The campaign has been supported by several Kurdish academics, politicians and other public figures in addition to the support on social media platforms through several hashtags like #JiyanBiKurdiXweshe (which translates to “Life is good with Kurdish” and #JiBoKurdîÎmzeDikim ( “I sign for the Kurdish language.”