ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Thousands of Kurds in southeast Turkey are attending learning centers to improve their mother language of Kurdish. Most of the learners perfecting their formal use of Kurdish dialects at the Research Association of Mesopotamian Languages and Cultures (MED-DER) centers are young women.
Resen Yildiz, 23, lives in Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey. He is a college graduate and works as a teacher. He told Rudaw that now is the time for him to improve his language skills in Kurdish.
Yildiz attends MED-DER twice a week to take Kurdish Kurmanji dialect courses. He can speak colloquial Kurmanji, but wants to master the form of the language used in more formal settings.
“I can speak Kurmanji’s every day form, but I have come to improve the grammar, writing, reading and [formal] speaking,” he said.
Kurdish, the mother tongue of millions of people in Turkey, is banned in formal settings such as parliament and other public institutions. However, Kurds are allowed to use it at home or at informal events.
The government has opened Kurdish courses at some schools and Kurdish departments at some universities, but they have attracted only a few learners as they are optional and do not impact the students’ overall marks.
Currently, 350 learners are taught by MED-DER. They deliver both Kurmanji and Zazaki (Kirmanjki) courses, and are planning Sorani courses as well. Sorani is the dialect of Kurdish predominantly spoken in Erbil, Sulaimani and Halabja governorates of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and is the official language of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Mine Karakas is the co-head of the MED-DER. She told Rudaw that her organization aims to prevent the forced assimilation of Kurds into Turkish society.
“We have opened 20 courses [of Kurmanji] so far from beginning to the level of becoming a teacher. Our Zazaki courses are taught at 1-4 levels. Our aim is to teach and develop [Kurdish] language as well as preventing the assimilation against it,” she said.
Aziz Sahin is a teacher. She told Rudaw that their aim is to improve the learners’ speaking, writing, and grammar skills.
Most of MER-DER’s students are young women who work full-time. MER-DER courses are held in the evening to accommodate their learners’ working hours.
Many of the learners told Rudaw that they already speak Kurdish but want to improve it so that they can use it in formal circumstances.
“I can speak but I want to speak grammatically. Therefore, we come here,” said Gulizer Tellioglu, one of the students.
Another student, Ehmed Toprak, said, “Our ability to speak our language is weak because we have not been taught in it. We come here to remove the weakness.”
Founded in 2017, MED-DER has offices in Diyarbakir, Van, Batman and Mardin, and has taught about 2,000 courses so far.
