Every May 15, the mother tongue day is celebrated especially by peoples whose languages are banned and the importance of language is stressed. HPG and YJA Star guerillas said again this year that they will do whatever it takes to express themselves freely in their mother tongue.

WE WILL FIGHT TO OUR LAST DROP OF BLOOD FOR OUR LANGUAGE

Viyan Welat: “I celebrate this day firstly for our Leadership who has given the biggest fight for our language which is a part of our existence, and all of the Kurdish people and Kurdish children. For years, the state has used oppression, massacres and genocide to stop us from expressing ourselves in our language. We as the Kurdish people have never bowed down to these massacres. We always fought. We fought in the mountains as the guerilla, our people fought in the cities, together. Our fight continues.

The state plans to wipe out our language and develops assimilation and genocidal policies in schools. It alienates us from our own language. We have always fought against this and we will continue to fight. We will fight to our last drop of blood. What we ask of our people is that they protect their language because our language is our existence. I celebrate mother tongue day again for all of Kurdistan’s mothers.”

BANNING OUR MOTHER TONGUE IS BANNING OUR LIFE

Alişer Kubin: “I celebrate this day especially for the leader of our 45 year long struggle for language, Reber Apo and all mothers of Kurdistan and the martyrs. This is an important day. The language of a people means that their existence is accepted. Language comes before all. Not being able to speak our language means our life is banned.

Today there are many dirty scenarios in place against the Kurds. These plots on our language have continued for a long time. There is a policy of a special war. They take our children and start assimilating them at age 4 with Turkish on the one hand and Arabic on the other. The children are turned into the children of the state, children of the system. The Kurdish people should be aware of this and should not hand their children over to this dirty system. Children end up having to learn about another language and another culture before they have fully learned their own. All Kurdish people should be aware of the fascist Turkish state’s attacks.

We all saw what the racist and fascist state has done in Bakure Kurdistan to make the Kurds bow down. They did this most violently in Cizir, Nusaybin, Amed and other places. They say “Either you surrender, or we burn you”. The Kurdish people are made to choose between bowing down and losing our life.

We as the YJA Star and HPG guerillas say, we won’t bow down and we won’t kneel. And we will continue our resistance both as a people and as the guards of this people, until the end."