Habibe Eren 

 

ISTANBUL - Evaluating the presenter Didem Arslan’s racist remarks towards Kurdish, Linguist Necmiye Alpay said: ‘’Respect for mother tongue is one of the minimum conditions of social peace, this needs to be understood now. Unless a program for the socialization of peace is in place, such problems are giving more and more severe signs. It is as if a hidden hand supports intolerance.’’

 

Presenter Didem Arslan Yılmaz took the woman named Türkan Taşçı, who was on the phone from Urfa to the program ‘’Don’t Give Up With Didem Arslan Yılmaz’’ broadcast on Show TV, from the broadcast after a while after she started speaking Kurdish, saying ‘’This is the Republic of Turkey’’, ‘’We do not know the eastern language’’. The host’s attitude and intolerance towards Kurdish caused reactions. Intolerance to Kurdish is not the first. The ‘’unknown language’’ in the parliament, ‘’not suitable for pedagogy’’ in education, racist attacks on the street and in all areas of life, and the pressure on Kurdish, which is the subject of investigation in prisons, reached the level of ‘’ignoring’’ in the AKP-MHP rulership.

 

Linguist Necmiye Alpay pointed out that Kurdish should be embraced more with linguistic awareness against attacks on Kurdish and assimilation policies.

 

‘Respect for mother tongue is one of the minimum conditions of social peace’

 

Pointing out that Didem Arslan, on the one side, said ‘’I understand a little’’ about Kurdish in the relevant program, and on the other hand, ‘’This is the Republic of Turkey, we do not understand’’, Necmiye said: ‘’I do not think an experienced TV host would want to be in such a vacillating situation. This vacillation is just a minor sign of a big problem. Respect for their mother tongue is one of the minimum conditions of social peace, this needs to be understood now. Unless a program for the socialization of peace is in place, such problems are giving more and more severe signs. It is as if a hidden hand supports intolerance.’’

 

‘Kurdishness and Kurdish are very clear realities’

 

Regarding the politician Muharrem İnce’s targeting of Kurdish by saying ‘’it is not suitable for pedagogy’’, Necmiye said: ‘’Kurdishness and Kurdish are very clear realities. And, like any reality, they should find their place properly in education. While this reality should be included in the education of both Kurdish children and all of our children, on the contrary, there is an attempt to deceive. If there is anything that is not suitable for pedagogy, it is the attitudes and explanations that try to cover up the reality.’’ Necmiye noted that the relevant practices are an indication that the tendency to respond to the Kurdish Problem with the traditional policy of oppression has once again prevailed.

 

‘As official policy resorts to oppression, such examples will be occured’

 

Necmiye continued: ‘’After the gains of the last twenty years, I do not think that the euphemisms of the authorities such as the ‘Eastern language’ will have much chance today’’. Necmiye said that individual vacillation may continue, as in the example of Didem Arslan. Emphasizing that such examples will be occured more frequently as official policy resorts to oppression, Necmiye said: ‘’The only exception we know of the official policy of oppression and denial was the two and half years period covering the Solution Process (2013-2015). Apart from that, the state tried to ‘’solve’’ our social problems by force. We know the results.’’

 

‘It should be acted with language awareness against attacks’

 

Calling to act with language awareness against attacks on Kurdish, Necmiye continued as follows: ‘’Signs of consciousness coming from the grassroots are perhaps the most effective. For example, while I was writing these lines, there was a small-scale campaign on Twitter saying, ‘Lets today everyone tweet a Kurdish word that they know’. How beautiful! It will be a honor solidarity movement if such support becomes mass and continuous.’’

 

‘Social peace requires it’

 

Necmiye said: ‘’Anyone who denies her/his neighbor denies her/himself. We need to show together the courage for peace shown in Spain and Britain.’’ Necmiye stated that above all, peace in language is one of the most important conditions. Necmiye said: ‘’Whatever we are going to fight, whatever we are going to discuss, we have to argue in terms of peace, in terms of mutual respect. Social peace requires it, this is the first step. What could be more absurd than saying ‘you do not exist’ to a person standing in front of us? Even saying ‘I do not understand what you are saying’ has a respectful and loving way of saying. That is the way to understand each other.’’