English

Gaxan, a Kurdish festival held between 13-29 December, celebrates the return of the sun, and is a symbol of cultural defiance. In historically oppressed regions like Dersim, it represents the survival of Kurdish identity against decades of repression by the Turkish state. Gaxan, the Kurdish solstice festival held from 13-29 …

There has been a wave of protest in Turkey since Kurdish journalists Nazım Daştan and Cîhan Bilgin were killed in a Turkish drone strike in northeast Syria. The Turkish state has been cracking down hard on those who voice their anger. Amnesty International has issued a statement calling out Turkey …

Donald Trump highlighted Turkey’s historic and strategic role in Syria, praising President Erdoğan’s leadership. “They’ve wanted it for thousands of years, and now they got it,” Trump said, emphasising Turkey’s control over key Syrian territories. US President-elect Donald Trump, on Monday in Florida, has hailed Turkey’s “historic ties to Syria” …

‘Kurdish people have the right to use their own language in public and in education and to receive information in their mother tongue. Our linguistic riches should be celebrated, not destroyed.’ ‘Kurdish people have the right to use their own language in public and in education and to receive information …

In the early hours of this morning, police raided the Mesopotamian Language and Culture Research Association (MED-DER) and the Payîz Pirtûk bookshop in Diyarbakır (Amed), resulting in the arrest of several staff members. The operation raises concerns over the repression of Kurdish cultural rights in Turkey. Turkish police raided the Mesopotamian …

The DEM Party brings the case of a Kurdish woman denied treatment in Siirt (Sêrt) for not speaking Turkish to Parliament, urging reforms to allow Kurdish language use in public health services. A Kurdish woman in Siirt (Sêrt) was denied medical treatment because she does not speak Turkish, prompting the …

Kurdish media outlets named two journalists killed in the strike while earlier reports from the Iraqi media suggested that a senior PKK member was targeted. A KRG official has condemned the incident as Ankara remains silent. An airstrike targeted a vehicle in the Said Sadiq town of Kurdistan Regional Government …

Tarık Ziya Ekinci, a prominent Kurdish politician, writer and human rights defender, died on 15 August 2024 at the age of 99. A key figure in the Kurdish movement, Ekinci’s legacy in the struggle for Kurdish rights and democracy in Turkey is widely recognised. Tarık Ziya Ekinci, a Kurdish politician, …

  The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has expressed his concern about Iran’s ongoing executions, which disproportionately target minorities, and has called on the Iranian regime to abolish the death penalty. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk issued a press briefing on Friday expressing deep concern over …

Despite widespread opposition to the increasing number of executions in Iran, human rights activists report that at least 30 prisoners were executed in the country’s prisons between 3 and 7 August According to reports published, on the morning of 7 August, the death sentences of 29 prisoners, including two Afghan and one …

Kurdish protester Reza Rasayi was secretly executed in Kermanshah Central Prison of Iran, with human rights groups condemning it as an extrajudicial murder based on forced confessions. Kurdish protester Reza Rasayi was secretly executed in Kermanshah Central Prison, Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) reported on Tuesday. Human rights organisations have condemned the execution …

15 bar associations reacted against the hostile policies towards the Kurdish language and emphasised that attacks against Kurdish are an indication of intolerance towards the existence and culture of Kurds. 15 bar associations made a joint written statement on the removal of the traffic warning signs “Hêdî (Slowly)” and “Pêşî …

I am her. She is me. But I am a mere drop in the ocean. You are the ocean. Our flow is inevitable. We are unconcealed. Concealment and Unconcealment of Truth From childhood, she learned the struggle for survival through her mother’s stories and lullabies, which conveyed the essence of …

We have also a language technology department that develops automatic translators, voice synthesis technology… and some other tools that help us guarantee or increase the use and presence of Basque not only at work, but in many other areas. This is how for 52 years Elhuyar has developed new units: …

In Kurdish-majority Şırnak (Şirnex), Turkey, widespread deforestation for military construction is devastating Kurdish forests, transforming green landscapes into concrete and militarised zones. Extensive deforastaion is paving the way for the construction of military outposts, resulting in an ecological disaster in the Kurdish-majority Şirnak (Şirnex), Turkey. The Gabar, Cûdî and Besta …

On the morning of May 23, Dutch police arrested Kurdish journalist Serdar Karakoç in Amsterdam at the request of Germany. On the morning of May 23, Dutch police arrested Kurdish journalist Serdar Karakoç in Amsterdam at the request of Germany. Karakoç who was apparently arrested upon Germany’s extradition request, was brought to …

In our context, it is fundamental to say that in Euskal Herria we do not have our own state, so we cannot develop as much as we want the linguistic policy necessary to revitalize a language. We always depend on the Spanish or French states. Our language is a secondary …

We have to increase the usage of languages and not only the knowledge and that is not only in the will of the people. We must establish spaces for language use, spaces to consume in our languages where all activities can be carried out normally in our languages. Agurne Gaubeka …

While over 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide, about half are under threat of extinction or severely endangered, as power relations among languages are far from equal. Many languages require their users to actively work to pass it on to the next generation, the only guarantee they can survive in the …

By Fatoş Demirtaş The situation in Şirnex is unlike any other. During the preparations of the election, a large contingent of soldiers was deployed to Şirnex. We promptly lodged our objections, but they were dismissed, and the occurrence was outright denied. It was the first time they imported votes from …

In the PRC, where Mandarin Chinese is aggressively promoted as the official language, a similar policy is still in place against Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongolian and other languages, but also against Shanghainese and Cantonese.  While English tends to view the ‘Chinese language’ as a monolith, the phrase actually represents a large diversity of both written and spoken languages, …