Qamishlo workshop discusses Kurdish language future in Syria

Rojava University held a workshop on Tuesday in Qamishlo titled “The Kurdish Language in Syria in the New Phase: Reality, Challenges, and Future Prospects.” The event brought together dozens of university students and professors, along with writers, poets, journalists, and others interested in the Kurdish language from Qamishlo and abroad.

The workshop coincided with Syrian transitional government Ministry of Education Decision No. 2068/964, which limits Kurdish-language instruction in schools to just three lessons per week and classifies it as an elective subject.

The workshop opened with a minute of silence in tribute to the martyrs. Discussions then covered five themes, including the importance of the Kurdish language in preserving cultural identity, its development over recent years, the challenges it faces, and ways to expand its use in education and official institutions.

Participants included poet Gulizar from Sweden, writer Kemal Najm from Qamishlo, journalist Ramadan Olcan from Belgium, Bashir Mulla Nawaf, a professor of Kurdish literature at Rojava University, and academic Robin Reshvan from Washington. They presented their topics either in person or via video conference.

Kurdish language and literature: A path of development

In the first session, poet Gulizar delivered a speech via video conference, beginning by thanking the organizers of the workshop. She then discussed the importance of the Kurdish language and its role in the development of Kurdish literature and culture, concluding her contribution with a reading of a poem.

In the second session, writer Kemal Najm addressed the importance of having knowledge and information when defending rights. He stressed the need to be well informed about all aspects of the demands being put forward to ensure that advocacy is grounded in a clear understanding of the issues.

Najm also discussed the state of the Kurdish language during the years of the Syrian revolution, reviewing Kurdish publications released before the revolution and the efforts made to preserve the language, given its cultural and symbolic significance for the Kurdish people.

He noted that the Kurdish language had made significant progress during the years of the revolution, with an increase in Kurdish-language publications. This had created broader opportunities for its development and helped reduce the risk of the language being lost or forgotten.

In contrast, Najm criticized the Autonomous Administration for not adopting Kurdish as an official language within institutions and in markets. He stressed that preserving the language requires its use in all areas of life, including official correspondence.

He explained that the failure to use Kurdish in official correspondence had, in his view, weakened its presence. He also pointed to linguistic errors that emerged during the process of institutional integration, citing incorrect Kurdish wording on signs and in written materials as examples.

Najm emphasized the need to establish Kurdish as a professional and official language used across different fields. He explained that lawyers should be able to write their legal arguments in Kurdish, as should doctors and other professionals, thereby expanding the language’s presence in public life and institutions.

Developing the Kurdish language and strengthening its legitimacy in education

In the third session, journalist Ramadan Olcan, joining from Europe via video conference, praised Rojava University’s role in developing the Kurdish language in various ways. He expressed confidence that the efforts being made in this field would yield positive results.

Olcan noted that the struggle for the Kurdish language aims to establish its legitimacy across all aspects of life, from the earliest stages of schooling through to university education.

He also discussed the experiences of the Kurds under successive empires and later during the era of the nation-state, highlighting policies that sought to impose a single language across the different parts of Kurdistan.

In the fourth session, Bashir Mulla Nawaf, a professor of Kurdish literature at Rojava University, discussed the main obstacles that have hindered the development of the Kurdish language. He examined both internal and external factors, as well as the policies pursued by successive ruling authorities against the Kurds, which created conditions that restricted the language’s presence and development.

Mulla Nawaf stressed that languages gain value and legitimacy when they attain official status. He outlined several measures he considered essential to strengthening the position of the Kurdish language:

- Going beyond laws and official decisions to ensure the protection and development of the language.

- Providing training and education in the mother tongue.

- Translating all vocabulary used in school textbooks into Kurdish.

- Adopting a unified curriculum for teaching Kurdish while taking dialectal differences into account.

- Enshrining the Kurdish language in Syria’s new constitution.

International experiences and mother-tongue education

The workshop concluded with the fifth session, during which academic Robin Reshvan, joining from Washington, discussed international models and experiences in preserving mother tongues. He also explored ways to protect these languages from extinction while preserving their distinctiveness within the countries where their speakers live.

Reshvan emphasized the importance of using the Kurdish language in education, noting that mother-tongue education is one of the fundamental pillars of preserving a language, ensuring its continuity, and reducing the risk of its loss and extinction.

Throughout the workshop, participants stressed the importance of moving Kurdish beyond the realms of education and cultural initiatives towards wider use in institutions, official correspondence, and various professional fields. They also called for its enshrinement in the constitution, in a move aimed at strengthening its presence in public life in Syria.

ANHA