Statement by Jaffer Sheyhulislami Carleton University

I am writing this to support ROJ TV as a cultural institution that promotes the language, culture and identity of a stateless and most importantly oppressed nation.

Modernity is marked with "crisis of identity," and more than any other epoch it invokes the question, "who am I?" Those who lack the means of searching for an answer to this question suffer the most from this crisis. The Kurds, particularly those from Turkey, are the prime examples of this. ROJ TV is the voice of these people. It has done an unprecedented job in aiding the Kurds to express themselves in their mother tongue. ROJ TV has provided the Kurds with effective means of expressing, reinforcing, constructing and maintaining their linguistic, cultural, and national identities. Silencing ROJ TV will be another assault on Kurdish language and culture, and on the basic principles of human rights and freedom of expression.

Jaffer Sheyholislami,
Instructor
School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
Carleton University
Canada