Did
you know that the so called "PKK-command" communicates in Turkish alone
-- not Kurdish, and that the only language PKK leader Ocalan speaks
Turkish better than the Kurdish he learned later. Being fluent in a language
means participating and carrying the values of that culture.
People of Kurdish identification primarily live and have lived scattered
among four different countries. There are many dialects (according to some
independent languages) that fall under the umberella of Kurdish.
No restrictions exist with respect to Turkish Kurds speaking, publishing
and broadcasting in their languages, or opening private schools teaching
their languages; however, the only official language in Turkiye is Turkish.
85-90% of Turkish Kurds also speak Turkish. Being proficient in a language
means sharing that culture. Kurdish also has deep marks of Oguz Turkish,
and the percentage of Turkish words is over 40%.
| In the recent
past, most were nomads, with a feudal social structure. In Turkey, they
are divided by religion -many are not orthodox Moslems, but Alevis, far
less strict, and in the past whenever a Kurdish rebellion occurred, they
took different sides. There is also a vast linguistic divide. According
to the best anthropological account, Martin van Bruinessen's Aga, Sheikh
And State, there are seven Kurdish languages and in Turkey the speakers
of the Zaza and Kurmanci variants understand each other, if at all, only
with great difficulty. In Northern Iraq, there are two chief Kurdish formations,
but they, too, are divided by language, the Eastern group speaking a language
much influenced by Iranian. This problem is shown by the PKK's very own
television station, Med-TV, which broadcasts mainly in Turkish, and otherwise
uses Arabic or even Iranian. If you go round Kurdish districts, you find
that, the younger the people, the more they will use Turkish among themselves.
(Prof.
Norman Stone, The Guardian, November 28, 1998) |
|