KURDISH, A HUMANITARIAN LANGUAGE
By Ferhad Pirbal
Kurdish Globe, Iraq
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April 30 2008
A message from Kurdish authors to the European Parliament
"What we see today is that countries like Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and
Iran, who always claim to practice the Islamic religion, try to forbid
the use of Kurdish culture and language in spite of all the sacrifices
the Kurdish people offered for the sake of Islamic religion!"
The annual cultural festival was held in Belgium from April 17-19
under the sponsorship of Belgium’s Ministry of Culture, the Kurdish
Institution in Brussels, and the organization of Het Beschrijif VZW,
also in Brussels. The mentioned organizations asked me to write a
message; it was read during the festival on April 19 and it will be
presented to the European Parliament by those Kurdish authors who
participated in the festival. The message, also translated into Dutch
and French.
I also wanted to publish that message, which concerns the issue of
saving the Kurdish language and culture in Turkey, Syria, and Iran,
for The Kurdish Globe readers:
The Kurdish language is the language of more than 45 million
people, and it has been jailed. It is distributed throughout several
countries. The Kurdish language is one of those languages that served
as a basic structure in the founding and development of Eastern
civilization, and it served humanity centuries ago.
The famous book of Anabaz (401 B.C.), written by great Greek
philosopher Xenophones, is the most ancient documentary data that
refers to the existence of the Kurdish language; it mentions the
Kurdish language of a time when Greeks had sent interpreters to
translate the Kurdish language for them.
Post Jesus’s birth, the Kurdish language held a high humanitarian
position. It was full of peaceful messages. In prehistoric times,
it was written in the Pahlavi alphabet, and then in Syriac letters;
Easterners benefitted from it. After that, under the influence of
Islamic religion, the Kurdish language was obliged to be written in
the Arabic alphabet. In 1856, the Kurdish language was practiced in
written form in the Armenian alphabet and was used to translate the
Bible from the Armenian alphabet into the Kurdish language in order
for Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Armenians who lived in Kurdistan to be
able to read and practice their religion.
It is true that the Kurds had no country, but they still published
their first newspaper in the Kurdish language in 1898, as did Persians,
Arabs, and Turks. The attractive point here is that the first Kurdish
newspaper was nongovernmental and private, unlike the first Persian,
Turkish, and Arabic newspapers, which were government-issued papers
about government activities. The first Kurdish newspaper was published
by a Kurdish cultural individual who provided for the cost of the
newspaper without government assistance; he wanted to focus on issues
like culture, public news, and the rescue of people under the power of
Ottoman feudalism and totalitarian government. The cultural practice
of the first Kurdish newspaper (Cairo, Geneva, 1898-1902) is obvious
evidence that the Kurdish language, from so many years ago to the
present, strived to explain the meaningful purpose of culture to
humanity and reached for a humane democratic and peaceful situation,
which is why the Kurdish language deserves to be proud.
In the passage of time, such a great offer to humanity has made
problems for the Kurdish language and has become a victim after
sacrificing itself for others. The history of great Kurdish ruler
Salahaddin al-Ayubi (1138-93) tells us that in 1187, his empire decreed
an order allowing the use of the Armenian language so that Armenians
could write down their culture and religion and have freedom of
expression; he didn’t decree any decision to encourage his nation (the
Kurdish nation) to practice the Kurdish language and develop Kurdish
culture. What we see today is that countries like Syria, Turkey, Iraq,
and Iran, who always claim to practice the Islamic religion, try to
forbid the use of Kurdish culture and language in spite of all the
sacrifices the Kurdish people offered for the sake of Islamic religion!
What is shocking along with this history is that the Kurdish language
has been forbidden through means like religion and politics and
has not been allowed to be expressed freely. Kurdish authors and
cultural people, historians, and others were obliged to submit to those
authorities who always conquered their lands, and were forced to write
in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish to serve human culture. These Kurdish
authors, thinkers, and scientists who wrote in foreign languages rather
than Kurdish include Ibn Khallikan (an Islamic sociologist in the 13th
century); Ibn Sirin (the first Muslim scientist who interpreted the
psychology of dreams centuries before Sigmund Freud); Ahmed Shawqi
(who pioneered the modern Egyptian literary movement and was named
the Prince of Poets); Qassim Amin (the first cultural man in the East
who defended women’s rights); Nezami Ganjavi (a famous Iranian epic
poet of centuries ago); Yashar Kamal (a famous novelist in Turkey);
Yilmaz Guney (a Turkish film producer and director); and Salim Barakat
(a great Syrian author). Among all these great cultural people are
others who invented great things and were originally Kurdish.
The success of Kurdish people continues to this day. In 2007, Kurdish
author Seyhmus Dagtekin was awarded the most famous poetry prize in
France, the Prix Malarme. All of this evidence bears out the fact that
if the Kurdish language becomes free and if Kurdish culture could be
written down freely, many great works would be produced that would
be as magnificent as those written works in European languages.
Very much worth mentioning is that were the Kurdish language freely
spoken, a language that is spoken by more than 45 million independent
people who are under dictatorial powers, then it would give all
mankind access to a growing number of people with a great hidden
humanitarian ability, a people wishing to install peace and democracy
in the Middle East.