Vakkas Çolak, a faculty member at the University of Tokyo, says Turkey has put pressure to shut down Kurdish language classes in Japan. Photo: Vakkas Çolak
TOKYO,— A teacher of Kurdish language at the University of Tokyo, Vakkas Çolak, said the Turkish Foreign Ministry approached Japanese officials to protest Kurdish language lessons that began in April at the university, the Yeni Ya?am daily reported on Monday.
Çolak told the newspaper that he heard the reaction of Turkish ministry officials from their Japanese counterparts.
“Given that the right to an education is protected by the [Japanese] constitution, no one can interfere,” Çolak was quoted as saying by the daily.
He said approximately 40 students attended the Kurdish language course, the first of its kind in the country.
He told K24 TV on Monday that Turkey’s interference is counterproductive, adding that the university is free and independent to make its own decisions.
“This is an academic issue, there is no reason for the Turkish Foreign Ministry or anyone else to interfere,” he stated. “There is academic freedom.”
Çolak, a Kurdish community leader in Japan, who is also a member of the Japan-Kurdistan Friendship Association, previously published the first Kurdish-Japanese dictionary, and the first Kurdish-Japanese grammar book.
Regarding his course, the Kurdish teacher described it as “a historical moment.” Although nearly 2,000 Kurds live in Japan, his students will mostly be Japanese.
“Other nations should learn about the Kurdish issue and the Kurdish language from Kurds,” he told K24 TV.
Çolak explained that just as Armenian history should not be taught by the Turkish people, nor the Turkish story by Greek people, Kurdish history should be taught by Kurds.
So far, the Turkish embassy in Japan has not released any public statement or confirmed the news.
Kurdish Affairs analyst Mutlu Civiroglu, who teaches Kurdish at universities in the United States such as the University of Arizona, and recently Stratford University, said Turkey’s reaction is “sad to see.”
“Turkey should be happy about Kurdish being taught at prestigious universities,” he told Kurdistan 24.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language, prohibiting the language in education and broadcast media.
The use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet are prohibited in Turkey and has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003.
Kurdish is not an official language in Turkey despite having a roughly 22.5 million speakers in the country. Kurds are allowed to speak in their mother tongue at home, although the government has allowed some pro-government TV channels to present programs in Kurdish.
The use of the term “Kurdistan” is vigorously rejected due to its alleged political implications by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize the existence of a “Turkish Kurdistan” Southeast Turkey. The word ‘KURDISTAN’ is strongly prohibited in Turkey.
In February 2019 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that there is no such place as Kurdistan in Turkey and criticized the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker for using the word.
“You want Kurdistan, you can go to the north of Iraq,” Erdogan said during an election rally for his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Yozgat province in central Turkey.
In December 2018, Google has deleted a map of Greater Kurdistan from its My Maps platform after the Turkish government had requested Google remove the map, objecting to the depiction that outlined the lands inhabited by Kurds that encompass territories within Turkey.
The Kurds remain the world’s largest stateless ethnic group. Estimated to over 40 million Kurds live in “Greater Kurdistan” which covers an area as big as France.
Read more about Kurdish language in Turkey
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