A Letter From Irland

Let me began by quoting well known Irish man Douglas Hyde once said this "It is a most disgraceful shame the way in which Irishmen are brought up. They are ashamed of their language, institutions, and of everything Irish." He also stated following quotes In order to de-Anglicize ourselves, we must at once arrest the decay of the language. We must teach ourselves not to be ashamed of ourselves. Douglas Hyde. He said these words from the beginning of early 19th century in Colonised Ireland under the British rule that made the Irish to loose it is language. What are the connections between the Irish and Kurds today? The connection that both nations suffered at the hands of their subjects. The worse criminal acts of any states against oppress nations are the killing of it is culture and language. The Kurds today are no different to the Irish people hundred years ago.

The appalling mistreatment of the Kurdish population, which has only served to weaken the Turkish state since its foundation, must be acknowledged and corrected without fear. Kurdish leaders stress that Kurds cannot be described as a minority within Turkey, but rather that they are a constituent element of the state, which would never have gained the influence or strength to make a claim for independent statehood from the ruins of the Ottoman empire had Kurds not thrown their weight behind Ataturk's efforts in return for the promise of equal recognition within the new nation. The Turdish representative at Lausanne, Ismet Pasha, declared: "The Kurds and the Turks are the essential components of the Republic of Turkey. The Kurds are not a minority but a nation." However, after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) Ankara's policy rapidly changed. The structures of the new state were designed wholly in accordance with ethnic Turkish interests. The Kurds' existence was denied. The Kurdish language, the practice of Kurdish culture, even the concepts of Kurd and Kurdistan were forbidden.

In the past Turkish state tried to close down the numbers of Kurdish language classes in Denmark, today Turkish prime minister has tried to do similar anti-democratic and anti-Kurdish sentiments in Europe. Turkey once for all has come to the terms that Kurdish and Kurds are not just people from the mountain without any culture and language as it often tries to describe it through the Turkish media. Turkey in order to make the Kurds to hate their own language often uses these old fascist Europe tactics, such as dil, gunes teorisi. What is means that Turkey has tried to establish some sort of prove that Turkish is better than the all the languages in the world. What makes Turkey more furious is the Kurds today have satellite channel were they can watch, listen and participate in their own language through Roj TV. It has been the best revival of the Kurdish language in the history of the Kurdish struggle against Kemalist Turkish state. It has been the most successful story for the Kurds. This is what the Turkish authorities can not take at all. "How dare the Kurds watch something else that we have presented to them?" This is the Turkish attitudes that Turkish is better and why the Kurds watch Kurdish instead. So the campaign against the Kurdish ROJ TV goes back to the very root of foundation of Turkish state, under the banner of one nation, one flag, and one language. The Turkish thinking is that there can not be two nations and two languages inside Turkey. What is making Turkey so fearful of Kurdish language, because it has probably realised at least that Kurdish belongs to Indo-European languages and it has very strong roots. .

Kurds shall not give up what they are believe in. ROJ TV is an open university for the Kurds. With out it they wouldn't have known what really happened in Semdinli and many other parts of Kurdistan. It has opened our minds to see the world through Kurdish eyes not the Arab, Persian, or Turkish eyes.


Your Sincerly,

Latif Serhildan,
30.11.2005