The People’s Democratic Party (HDP) has tabled a motion asking for an investigation into the prohibition in Turkey of the use of languages other than Turkish and promotion of the use and protection of all mother tongues.

The motion was submitted by HDP Van deputy Kemal Aktaş who identified the obstacles to the use of mother tongues and called for their protection. Aktaş recalled in the motion the fact that 21 February was declared “International Mother Tongue Day” by UNESCO in 1999 and that it has been celebrated since 2000 in support of multi-culturalism and multi-lingualism.

Aktaş drew attention to the figures provided by Unesco, which demonstrates that 2 thousand 500 languages are under the threat of disappearance across the world, 18 of them belonging to communities in Turkey. According to UNESCO, a language is defined as being under threat of disappearance if there would be no one able to speak in that language in 100 years. The language is defined as “dead” if there are no children speaking it.

Recalling these definitions of UNESCO, Aktaş said that “The language that a community on an ethnic or national level uses in all its facilities and daily life as well in relations among its members is the mother tongue of that community. Put otherwise, the language that an individual learns without formal education from his/her family, the surroundings s/he lives in or the society is the mother language of that individual”. Aktaş added that despite the fact that the mother tongue is an indispensable aspect of individuals’ lives, the scientific and pedagogical realities are deliberately ignored in the discussions on mother tongue in Turkey.

Aktaş further stressed that passing on the cultural and linguistic wealth of a country to further generations is as important as sustaining economic and social success, and that social and cultural development can only be achieved on this basis.

HDP deputy emphasised in the motion that it is mostly children who are negatively affected by the ban on the use of the mother tongue, as it restricts the social relations and development of children from the early years.

The HDP deputy said: “Millions of children whose mother tongue is other than Turkish (Kurdish, Laz, Arabic, Circassian, etc.) have a right to education in their mother tongue”, adding that he was submitting the motion to demand the identification and determination of all the legal and factual obstacles to the use of different languages and the development of different cultures in a free environment. He said it was also important to identify the languages that are under threat of disappearance and to determine measures to be taken for their protection.