ŞIRNAK - Managers and students of Birca Belek Language and Culture Association, working on Kurdish language and culture in Cizre, are photographed by the police who waits at the door of the association.
The students and managers of Birca Belek Language and Culture Association (Komeleya Ziman û Çandê ya Birca Belek), established to teach Kurdish and conduct academic work on language are being harassed by the police. Police officers waiting at the door takes videos and pictures of those who go in and out of the association.
Mesut Üçkaç, one of the association's managers, who reacts to the situation, said that police have been waiting outside the door since the language courses started, and have been taking photos of the students and the association employees. Üçkaç said: "A police team waits outside the door during the lessons. This is harassment, this is psychological pressure. When we ask them what they are doing there, they say they are ordered to be there."
Üçkaç, emphasizing that education is one of the most basic rights of the people, drawing attention to the pressure against Kurdish, said: "Our aim is to protect our language. With this pressure, they want to prevent Kurdish education. We see that the discourse of "Kurdish language is not prohibited" is only on paper. There is a concrete pressure on our language and the institutions working on it."
Baattin Yağarcık from Mesopotamia Author's Association said: "People attending the courses in these associations or working there are being harassed by the police. I am calling on to the authorities. Abandan your hostility towards Kurdish. For years Kurdish has lived and spoken in these lands. We will not abandon our mother tongue."