Social service specialist Mehmet Alan Akyüz has drawn attention to the assimilation faced by the children of Yezidi families from Sinjar who left their homeland to escape from the cruelty of ISIS gangs. Children from Rojava who have taken refuge in North Kurdistan are also facing the same cultural and linguistic assimilation.

The Turkish state, which maintains its assimilation policies on the Kurds who were massacred, whose language was forbidden, who learned Turkish in the state schools and whose villages’ names were changed, is also obliging the children from Rojava and Yezidi children to speak Turkish.

Stating that the families from Rojava coming to North Kurdistan and Turkey after the war started 3 years ago in Syria are not supported by the state, the social services specialist Mehmet Alan Akyüz said that the children of these families have to work in the streets. Stating that the children have to learn Turkish in order to work in the streets, Mehmet Alan Akyüz added that: “the children from Rojava are embracing Turkish in order to provide money for their families. This situation is assimilating the children. The system doesn’t give work to people who cannot speak Turkish and is assimilating these people via this way.”

Restricting Kurdish to a narrow space is cultural genocide

“When we look at the situation of the families from Rojava, we can see how the systematic policies are working. Restricting the Kurdish language to a narrow area of life is aiming for cultural genocide,” said Mehmet Alan Akyüz. He also said that this will pave the way to a loss of the mother tongue which has a major effect on the creation of cultural values.

‘Yezidi Children are face to face with a conscious assimilation policy’

Stating that the children of Yezidi families who fled from the attacks of ISIS gangs from Sinjar to North Kurdistan are face to face with a conscious assimilation policies, Mehmet Alan Akyüz said that if the Yezidi Kurds who are trying to live without any support from the state become involved in economic relations, their authentic values will be lost.

Drawing attention to the importance of acting in solidarity with the people who have been displaced economically and socially, Akyüz called on the people to protect the Yezidi children and children from Rojava.