Questions about the possibility of Kurdish education

The reactions that came, from a place I did not expect at all, over the issue of “Kurdish-language education” to my last article about the madrasas did not, for some reason, bother me at all; on the contrary, they led me to think that they provided a good occasion to talk about certain subjects.

What I did was not “a proposal for Kurdish-language education,” but many high-and-mighty media outlets saw it as a proposal I made for Kurdish-language education. Of course, they tried to present this like a sensational denunciation, like a deviation from the Republic’s values and programs. It is not important at all. Let them present it as they like, but the excessive reaction they display toward the matter of Kurdish-language education reveals their obvious racism, however much they claim otherwise.

Despite so many reforms and so many democratic openings over 20 years, it is seen that some people have still not been able to extinguish the racist fire within them. Moreover, it is also seen that, within the new margins that have formed in freedom of expression, they have not updated their lists of prohibitions.

As if they still had no news of it, Kurdish-language education is already no longer forbidden in Turkey. When conditions are in place and demand is sufficiently organized, Kurdish-language education can be requested even in state schools, and the state can meet it.

As for the madrasas, we merely drew attention to the fact that, even in times when the prohibitions were in force, they carried out Kurdish-language education without straining themselves at all, entirely within the most organic and authentic relationship possible between the people and the madrasas. We made an observation. That is, the madrasas were already providing Kurdish-language education, and do provide it. To those who today are looking for a way on the possibilities of Kurdish-language education, it is possible to give an answer by saying that this has already been practiced throughout history.

The madrasas of course do not consist only of those in the East. Different madrasa education practices and curricula have been possible in different places. However, in the Eastern madrasas the nearly official language of instruction has been Kurdish among the Kurds and Arabic among the Arabs. Even Arabic instruction in the Kurdish madrasas has been conducted through Kurdish, and this has never been a matter of any discomfort.

Of course, especially in the single-party years, the state not only did not recognize a language called Kurdish but did not recognize the madrasas at all. At this point the Kurds were being subjected to a double prohibition. Therefore, while these institutions in different parts of the country assumed a very important role in providing basic Islamic education, in the East they were additionally fulfilling a separate task in preserving and reproducing the Kurdish language at a certain level of literature.

After the transition to democratic life, too, these institutions continued their existence informally, without the support of the state, as entirely civil formations, with the support of the people. But in the last twenty years these institutions have begun to be recognized and supported by the state, albeit with certain adjustments. The madrasas especially in the East, in this period, continued their education relatively much more comfortably, and, while some of them tried to attain a suitable equivalence with the Imam-Hatips within themselves, underwent a certain renewal, even if spontaneously. But education in the Eastern madrasas did not cease to be in Kurdish, and this was also seen and recognized by the state. Thus, in terms of Kurdish-language education too, a practice emerged that can be talked about and that can be developed and modeled when desired.

No one needs to be afraid of talking about such a thing. Can a way be opened that will not damage the country’s national unity and integrity, and will not block the educational processes in which those who study here could advance further? Is it not worth dwelling on?

Essentially, as a philosophy and as a belief, I have always thought that the question of education of a person in his mother tongue can be opened to discussion not so much as a right but only as a possibility. Today’s homogenizing culture has also made language education a key to a status and to rising to higher levels in social stratification and in equality of opportunity. In a place where the official and common language is Turkish, the question of how much equality of opportunity someone who has gone through another mother-tongue education can have… This, contrary to what is supposed, is a question that can be assessed in favor of, not against, Kurdish children. On this, leaving the barren circle of whether it is a right or not, it is possible to discuss coolly, in terms of how much it would or would not serve Turkey, the Kurds and our becoming a great country together, with what it would bring and what it would take away.

Moreover, today we are in a far more comfortable and far better position to discuss this. The terror problem has been largely solved, and the circles that could use this issue as a matter of pressure on the Kurdish people have been pushed back. The Turkish state and the Kurdish citizen have been left face to face. Everyone in between has withdrawn. It is just the time to listen to the real intentions and demands of the Kurdish people, freed from these pressures.

Some experiences we are having today within the framework of refugees’ adaptation problems can also shed light on many subjects. Because their mother tongue is not Turkish, some doctors, engineers, social scientists, even theologians who were very well trained in their own mother tongues, Arabic or Pashto, in their own countries cannot find a job in Turkey in which they can practice their professions. Because when you are cut off from the common language of everyone in society, you can lose your profession as well. Because the prevalence of the language in which you are educated also increases the strength of your profession and status, and as you go beyond the boundaries of the world that speaks your own language and open yourself to the languages spoken by wider masses, you become better in your profession too. That everyone is striving feverishly to learn English cannot be attributed to a matter of pure imperialism. It is a subject much more related to integration (globalization).

Even these can be discussed by those expert in the matter, and very different theses can be advanced. The point of the matter is not to be afraid of Kurdish or of any other language.

All languages are the signs (ayat) of Allah, and it befits a Muslim to show respect to all languages and all people.