The Kurdish Language and Culture Network has presented the final declaration of a two-day symposium in Amed (Diyarbakir). The press conference was attended by the members of the network's secretariat consisting of 28 people, which will coordinate the future cooperation.

Bawer Berşev, on behalf of the Network representing different organisations, institutions and parties, pointed out that the Kurdish language is seriously threatened by the assimilation policy in Turkey that has been pursued for years. The work against assimilation carried out so far is not enough to save the Kurdish language from extinction. For this, he said, effective and, above all, long-term planned cooperation was necessary.

Almost 300 people from various institutions participated in the symposium. As Bawer Berşev explained, two days of intensive discussions were devoted to topics such as the right to a mother tongue, the principles of civil society work, the internal and external problems of the Kurdish language and culture, and future work as a network. The results of the twelve working groups at the symposium were recorded in writing. The working groups will continue after the symposium.

The name of the network, which was previously "Language and Cultures", was changed to "Kurdish Language and Culture". However, Bawer Berşev pointed out that Armenian, Aramaic and Arabic are also affected by the assimilation policy in Kurdistan and that the network is open to expansion.

The network called on all civil society institutions in the region to participate in the work to protect and promote Kurdish culture and language. It appealed to the Kurdish parties to make "politics in Kurdish". The Kurdish people were also called upon to stand up for their languages.