Human Rights Watch on Friday urged Turkey to end prosecutions equating Kurdish language and cultural activities with terrorism, calling the practice discriminatory and an abuse of the law.
Rıfat Roni, 59, a Kurdish court interpreter and member of the Mesopotamian Language and Culture Research Association (MED-DER), recently stood trial on charges of membership in an armed organization. Prosecutors allege his Kurdish language teaching and activities support the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), though no concrete evidence has been presented.
Roni spent nearly three months in pretrial detention before being released, but he still faces a possible prison sentence of up to 10 years if convicted. MED-DER, a legally registered group offering Kurdish language classes and promoting cultural rights, continues to operate despite such legal actions.
Kurdish language education in Turkey is limited, with few schools offering optional two-hour weekly courses, leaving organizations like MED-DER to address the gap. Prosecutors claim such activities recruit youth for militant groups, drawing criticism from human rights advocates.
Human Rights Watch highlighted European Court of Human Rights and Turkish Constitutional Court rulings that protect cultural expression and association. HRW Director Hugh Williamson called the targeting of Kurdish language efforts an unlawful assault on cultural identity and urged Turkey to cease these prosecutions.
Kurds in Turkey are often pressured not to speak their native language. Authorities frequently claim that people speaking in Kurdish are chanting slogans in support of the PKK, which has been leading an armed insurgency against Turkey’s security forces since the ’80s in a campaign that has claimed the lives of some 40,000 people.
Prohibitions against the use of Kurdish in Turkey go back many years. Kurdish language, clothing, folklore and names were banned in 1937. The words “Kurds,” “Kurdistan” and “Kurdish” were among those officially prohibited. After a military coup in 1980, speaking Kurdish was formally forbidden, even in private life.
The visibility of Kurdish on TV and in the print media was only made possible in the early 2000s thanks to significant progress made in the country’s bid to become a member of the EU.
Yet, the drift towards nationalism and the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the last decade have led to an increase in anti-Kurdish racist attacks.