717-12-2009
By Wladimir van Wilgenburg
The Hague - The Kurdish nationalist singer Sivan Perwer made it clear on a cultural Kurdish debate evening on 15 December, that Kurds should protect their own culture.
The evening organized by the Dutch organization Stichting Mooi was lead by the editor of the Dutch version of Rudaw in the Netherlands, Sidar Bengin Epozdemir. "Who protects himself, could have survived. If a people speaks Turkish, they become Turkish. If you speak Dutch, your culture becomes Dutch,” said Perwer.
Perwer referred as an example to South-America, where most indigenous people forgot their mother languages and now speak Spanish. Perwer said the a lot of Kurds have been assimilated in Turkey. “Language is important. Our politicians often say, if you don’t want to lose your Kurdish identity, you have to speak your own language at home.”
The Kurdish singer also referred to the words of the Turkish prime minister Erdogan who called assimilation a crime against humanity during a visit to Germany. Therefore he called on Kurdish parents to teach their children Kurdish. “There are parents who say, I can’t teach my children Kurdish, but this is an excuse. If people don’t teach their own children Kurdish, then they have created their children for Turks and not for Kurds. They have to learn Kurdish perfectly and after that their history and culture.”
The Dutch-Kurdish writer Ibrahim Selman, who’ve written several novels in Dutch, made similar comments on Kurdish parenthood and said it’s a shame people do not protect their own culture. “At home nobody can ban your language. The strange thing is, if Kurds speak bad Turkish, they teach their children also bad Turkish” (Photo: Rudaw).
© Rudaw
