Over half of Turkey’s Kurds do not speak Kurdish at home: Study

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Over half of Turkey's Kurds do not use the Kurdish language at home, according to a study, with the majority of families primarily using Turkish to communicate.

A study by the Socio-Political Field Research Center highlights the declining use of Kurdish at home in Turkey. The survey, conducted earlier this month among 1,276 people across 16 provinces, including those with a Kurdish-majority population, reveals that only 42.2 percent of Kurds speak Kurdish regularly at home.

According to the study, women speak Kurdish less frequently than men, with 46.3 percent of men and 35.9 percent of women using Kurdish at home. The prevalence of Kurdish increases with age, with the highest usage recorded among those over 65.

Despite being Kurdish, 18.8 percent of families speak only Turkish at home, and 46 percent speak both their mother tongue and Turkish. Overall, 64.8 percent of the participants indicated that they primarily use Turkish at home.

The study exposes concerning trends regarding children's ability to speak Kurdish. Nearly 40 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 17 cannot speak their mother tongue at all, and another 25 percent have very limited knowledge.

However, there is a strong desire to preserve Kurdish. Nearly all respondents, 99.4 percent, said they want to see their mother tongue protected and developed. An overwhelming majority of 98.4 percent also expressed a desire for their children to be educated in their mother tongue.

The biggest threats to Kurdish, according to the survey participants, are the lack of education in the language, families primarily speaking Turkish with their children, and the government’s “oppressive and assimilation” policies towards Kurdish culture.

The majority of respondents reported experiencing discrimination due to their non-Turkish language, particularly in government institutions.

The study suggests several solutions to revitalize Kurdish, including making it a language of education (36.1 percent), legal protections (29.6 percent), and official language status (16.5 percent). Notably, 12.5 percent of the participants believe the key lies with families actively teaching their children Kurdish.

Although the Kurdish language is no longer banned in Turkey, the official language of education and government institutions is solely Turkish. Following the local elections held in March this year, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which won the majority of municipalities in Kurdish areas, started initiatives to promote Kurdish and non-Turkish languages in their territories, including through cultural events such as street festivals.

In April, following the local elections, the ninth annual theatre festival was held in Diyarbakir (Amed in Kurdish), featuring 14 productions in the Kurdish language, in addition to five in Turkish.

The Kurdish language was banned for much of the 20th century following the birth of Turkey's modern state in the 1920s. The public use of the language was illegal, including speaking, publishing, or singing in Kurdish.

Turkey’s current constitution, ratified after the 1980 military coup, stipulates that the country’s only official language is Turkish. It does not entirely prohibit the use of Kurdish, but successive Turkish governments have cracked down on its use.