Qamishlo intellectuals: decision to allocate 3 Kurdish-Language classes is barley enough to meet aspirations

In Rojava, reactions rejecting Syrian Ministry of Education Decision No. 964/2068 continue. The decision allocates three weekly classes for teaching the Kurdish language and designates it as an optional language. Calls are being made to amend the decision and recognize Kurdish as an official language in the country, with this recognition to be enshrined in the new constitution.

In this context, poet and writer Anahita Sino told ANHA's agency that language is a right belonging to all peoples, and that every people have the right to speak its own language, because language represents peoples’ identity and preserves their history and heritage.

She pointed out that the Kurdish language has been subjected over the years to policies of eradication and dissolution. Despite this, it has maintained its existence. She added: “Our heritage, history, and literature remained largely oral, and today, under the new constitution, all peoples must have the right to demand their rights.”

“We want to learn in our Kurdish language inside schools”

Anahita added: “Allocating three weekly classes to the Kurdish language is unacceptable. For the Kurdish people, we do not merely want to know our Kurdish language, because we already know it through our fathers and mothers. Rather, we want to learn in our Kurdish language inside schools. Therefore, there is a major difference between the two.”

Anahita continued by saying that the Kurdish people want to study all subjects in Kurdish, whether geography, mathematics, physics, or chemistry, and that the decision issued by the Syrian Ministry of Education does not meet the dreams and aspirations of the Kurdish people, especially after this revolution, which has continued for 15 years, with sacrifices and martyrs who gave their lives for this country.

“Decisions can be amended”

Anahita also highlighted the difficulties Kurdish intellectuals have faced in writing in the Kurdish language, saying: “We faced great difficulties at the beginning of our journey, as we used to write in secret, continuing to do so until today. Therefore, we reject this decision.”

She noted that decisions issued by the ministry can be amended, adding that “this is a natural matter, and our message is that the Kurdish language is a language that deserves protection, and that the Kurdish people deserve to write their history in Kurdish after being subjected to policies of eradication and dissolution. Therefore, the Kurdish language must be protected under all circumstances.”

“The decision does not correspond to the scale of the sacrifices”

For his part, Mustafa Farhan, a member of the Central Committee of the Left Party, a Kurdish-language teacher, and a worker in the field of the Kurdish language, said: “The decision of the Ministry of Education in the transitional government to allocate three weekly classes for teaching the Kurdish language does not meet the aspirations and sacrifices of the Kurdish people, which they made in order to bring down the former regime.”

He added that their hopes for a new Syria are for Kurdish, alongside Arabic, to be an official language in Syria, and for it to be the language of the judiciary, municipalities, schools, and all other institutions, contributing to the development of the state.

Farhan noted that the Kurdish people in the new Syria aspire to live alongside all Syrian peoples and components, calling for a Syria free of sectarianism and terrorism, and for a free and democratic Syria that guarantees the rights of all components and in which people can live in complete freedom.

Farhan pointed out that the Kurdish people have lived on their own land for thousands of years, and that the former regime deprived them of their cultural, political, and economic rights.

“The Kurdish language contains a wealth of scientific terminology”

Mustafa Farhan stressed: “Kurdish people must have a sense of belonging to their homeland, and this belonging can be achieved through the Syrian state’s official recognition of the Kurdish language, by enshrining it in the country’s new constitution. In this way, a genuine partnership can be established among the Syrian people, paving the way for the establishment of a new and democratic Syria.”

Farhan pointed out that the Kurdish language is very rich and is suitable for all scientific subjects. He also emphasized the need to apply decisions concerning language to all Syrian components. He affirmed that the Kurdish language contains specialized scientific terminology for all scientific disciplines.

Mustafa Farhan concluded his remarks by emphasizing their aspiration to feel that the new Syrian state belongs to all Syrians without discrimination.

ANHA