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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.56.08.30
How to Cite:
Bilgin, R., Ekici, S., & Sezgin, F. (2022). The state of kurdish language through public policies in Turkey after 1980. Amazonia
Investiga, 11(56), 320-329. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.56.08.30
The state of kurdish language through public policies in Turkey after
1980
1980 SONRASI TÜRKİYE'DE KAMU POLİTİKALARI İLE KÜRT DİLİNİN DURUMU
Received: September 2, 2022 Accepted: October 8, 2022
Written by:
Recep Bilgin128
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3760-218X
Seydali Ekici129
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8843-6092
Fatih Sezgin130
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4022-5813
Abstract
Making of public policies is a process through
which the state determines relevant topics for the
sake of its citizens and implements them. In
Turkey, the public policies about Kurdish
language after 1980 are outstanding such that the
actors of coup d’état eagerly embraced the
former idea of nation state which theoretically
requires one common language in the borders of
the given country. In parallel with this notion, the
soldiers, who are the impeccable followers of
Kemalist idea, put much pressure on local
languages in Turkey, especially Kurdish
language. They made some laws and forbade
other languages than Turkish. But later, the
conservative governments reigned in Turkey
which had different ideas about this topic. As
they got the opportunities, they made use of them
so as to improve the situation for that language.
The conservative governments handled this topic
in the realm of freedom and human rights and
created different public policies, so the adventure
of Kurdish Language followed a much different
track under different governments. This is a
qualitative study, and the data were compiled
from the related literature and evaluated
accordingly.
Key Words: Public Policies, Kurdish Language,
Soldiers, Conservative Governments.
128
PhD Candidate, International Relations and Diplomacy Department, Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics, Tishk
International University, Erbil, Iraq.
129
PhD. Candidate, Department of International Relations and European Studies, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences,
International Burch University, Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina.
130
PhD. Candidate, Campus Director, Glenbow College, Calgary, Canada.
Bilgin, R., Ekici, S., Sezgin, F. / Volume 11 - Issue 56: 320-329 / August, 2022
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Introduction
Public policies are a kind of map through which
the state tries to find solutions to the problems
which emerge among public. But there could be
many different circumstances which affect the
policies. Accordingly, the outcomes of the
policies and the processes are re-assessed, and
some modifications or even radical changes are
made. The public policies about Kurdish
Language in Turkey went through a similar path
as it was depicted above.
This study draws attention to the link between
language and nationalism by explaining what
public policy is, how its processes are and who its
actors are. In this context, state policies after 1980
towards Kurdish, the language of the Kurdish
minority, as a reflection of nationalism in Turkey,
were evaluated. After specifying Turkish as the
official language of the state in the Constitution of
the Republic of Turkey, policies were followed
that would not allow the development of any other
minority language. At this point, the language of
the Kurds, the largest minority in Turkey, was
banned for a long time, and then these bans were
lifted by governments with democratic
tendencies. In fact, these prohibitions were not
lifted to allow the natural development of
Kurdish. In accordance with the conditions of
each period, some changes were made in the
framework stipulated by the governments. In line
with the democratization of Turkey, the processes
of lifting the bans on Kurdish and encouraging it
at some points by the state are discussed in this
article.
Literature Review
Public Policy
Public policy could be defined as a state's using its
authority through the laws which it made itself
and implementing them with the hands of an
official (Hill & Hupe, 2002). According to a
different definition, public policy is something
that the state chooses to do or chooses not to do
(Dye, 1981). As it is understood from these
definitions, if a state intentionally does something
or intentionally does not do anything, it could be
defined as public policy.
The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines this
term as follows: “government policies that affect
the whole population” (Merriam Webster
Dictionary, 2022).
It is not an easy attempt to try to define this term
so as to be accepted by everyone. As the nature of
the term requires, it is not suitable to come up with
a common definition for everybody to come to
terms. In general terms, public policies are the
goals and actions of the officials who try to
change the public service (Akindele & Olaopa,
2004).
These policies are the actions of the governments
and the intentions which give way to these
actions. So public policy is “an intentional course
of action followed by a government institution or
official for resolving an issue of public concern
(Cochran et al., 2015).”
For an action to be public policy, it should be
focused on a pre-determined topic and have an
aim. Moreover, the actors should have intentional
actions or the state of no actions (Erat, 2014). It is
clear from these definitions that a state of not
doing anything about a topic needs to be
intentional in order to be seen as a public policy.
When the state implements the laws and
regulations, there should be the citizens who are
affected by these actions. Then it is possible to
mention public policies, otherwise they are not
suitable to name as that. When the modern state is
looked into more deeply, it is clearly seen that it
has the authority and the opportunity to intervene
in all aspects of social life. By the way of
imposing laws and using the authority, the state
affects social life, economic situation,
environment, family life and many other areas. An
important aspect of all of the public policies
implemented by the state is that they are
originated in the laws and judicial system, so if a
state acts in the realm of the given laws and rules
and it affects the public, then it is possible to
mention public policies there. What is to be
underlined here is that the framework of these
policies is determined by the current laws
(Akdoğan, 2011).
After the industrial revolution, especially with the
effect of liberal thoughts, the role of the state was
re-determined and it was given a minimal role in
public life, which is not more than being a referee
in case of disagreements. But in the modern
world, the state has been redefined and it has been
given many other duties especially because of the
reason that the citizens expect many things from
the state to take action. As a result of this notion,
the role of the state has again been prevalent in
modern life and it has been more effective to
implement public policies. Therefore, the state has
been more inclined to intervene in public life,
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which could come up with some positive and
negative results (Dollery & Wallis, 1997).
Public Policy Actors
Throughout time, diplomatic communication has
played an important role in human society (Yildiz
& Dayan, 2022). Although the modern state has
many opportunities and much authority to
determine public policies, there are many other
factors that affect these processes. There are
different human groups, clubs, associations,
corporations which could intervene in the policies
and even have the effect to change the direction or
even stop them. In modern terms, the public
policies are handled under two different headings:
1) state-focused
2) society focused
When there are state focused policies, the
government and the bureaucrats play the crucial
role to determine the policies. When they are
society-focused, there are other actors than the
state and they could be able to put weight on them
and direct them. But although there are many
different actors, the main actor has always been
the state (Paffenholz, 2010).
Public Policy Processes
Throughout these processes, the first step is to
define a problem in society. The second step is to
come up with different policy offers which are
brought together in order to assess them
altogether. At this point, especially the problem-
related sectors take the major action for their
offers for solution. The next step is to bring these
offers to the issue. At this point, one of the most
crucial actors to determine public policies is the
media because it has the effect to present the topic
to the public as a problem in order to take action
more easily and with the consensus of the majority
of public. The media has the role of creating
awareness of the problem among the public and
they are prepared for next action. The coming step
is determining and adopting the policies, which is
the most intensive part of the decision-making
process. At this stage, all of the alternatives are
assessed and the most suitable one is pinpointed
to implement. Then the implementation process
starts. The authorities take the concrete action to
solve the problem. One of the most important
steps of the public policies is to evaluate the
implemented policies. During this process, the
success of the implemented policies is looked
through and if there are any unsuccessful
outcomes, they are corrected, or necessary
changes are made. Therefore, with the help of
these outcomes, new plans are made for better
results. The points that are not equally handled are
determined and policy changes are made during
this process. The last of all of these processes is
redefining the problem because when the
authorities complete the circle of the policy
making process, the solutions generally come
with next problems. In order to find more
effective solutions to the newly emerged
problems, this step plays crucial role for future
problems and their solutions (Cochran et al,
2015).
Graph 1. The circle of making public policies could be shown like this (Akgül & Kaptı, 2010):
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Public Policy Analysis
It could be stated that public policy analysis is an
effort to get the best result while comparing the
analysis of the system in which the policy is made
and its position in the professional field it was
created (Dror, 1967). While analyzing these
policies, paying attention only to the ideas which
were created by the politicians will not sufficiently
reflect the real situation. Because at this point, the
bureaucrats, legislative organs, interest groups,
experts and many other actors play very crucial
roles. The relation among these actors is very
important factor while determining public policies.
Moreover, the relation between these actors and
the society is also at the core point. For the public
policy analysts, all of the actors in this network are
of crucial importance and deserve to be focused.
While determining these policies, what is more
important than the current situation is that the
analysis of the process should be done primarily
(Sabatier, 1991).
Nationalism And Language
Nationalism refers to being a member of the same
nation and sharing some common values. Since
this is a subjective definition, it is possible to come
up with many others. An objective definition of the
term nationalism is almost impossible to offer. The
nation could be defined as the people who come
together under the same values and common
cultural constituents. But this term came to
existence in the framework of subjective
understanding, so many other different definitions
were also offered. Basically, the idea of
nationalism stemmed from French Revolution in
1789. Later during the Industrial Revolution, the
states perceived it as a must to bring people
together under the reign. During this period, the
states were in need of educated and literate people
and in order to meet this need, they created the
nation is a new category come to terms with the
requirements of that age. The idea of nationalism
was thought to be an effective factor to bring
people together and give them the idea of
commonality (Gellner, 2015).
After that time, nation states started to emerge and
they had the idea that it was only possible to protect
themselves and remove the differences via having
the idea of being a member of common nation and
creating power through psychological processes,
the end result of which was the people who came
together around the idea of nationalism in the same
political unit. By this way, an emotional affinity
was created among people who had patriotic
feelings for their country and people. As a result,
nation was thought to be created using the notion
of nationalism (Heywood, 2013).
While nationalism could be defined as above, it
should be stated that it has much broader definition
in political science literature. The mutual point that
all of the definitions focus on is that this term was
developed after the Industrial Revolution in order
to help Capitalism to improve. The idea of
nationalism serves to design the society in parallel
with the requirements of new age (Sadoğlu, 2002).
The focus on the communality of the society in
which many different cultures and lifestyles had
the opportunity to exist emerged as a new trend
after Industrial Revolution and was given much
more importance during the process of building a
new nation. Communicating with others,
comprehending what is read, and maintaining one's
own sanity all depend on one's command of the
language (Celik & Yildiz, 2019). Since there were
many different lifestyles and cultures in those
societies, there was a need for a common thing that
everybody in a society would share, which was
nothing but language. In the same society, while
there were many differences, people all shared one
common point; that was the language they were
communicating. For that reason, the nationalist
ideas gave much importance to language. The main
reason pointing to this importance was that there
was no other concept that strongly emphasizes
their common point. For that reason, the nation
states took the language as the first reference for
nation building and the importance of language
became part of the political processes so much that
all of the nation states developed new policies
about languages they speak and some of them
developed new policies about the local languages
which are spoken in the country. One of the pillars
of the nationalism is differentiating yourself from
others and showing your differences so as to form
a unique society and languages served much for
this notion (Sadoğlu, 2002).
In addition to these, language had a different aspect
from nationalism, which made it more valuable for
the next processes. Nationalism was something
imagined, in other words, it was an artificial thing
to be created in the minds of people and later
societies were categorized according to this
understanding. Nationalism did not emerge as a
universal thing in the normal human life but
brought into existence towards the end of the
eighteenth century. But for language, it was not a
result of these artificial processes and it existed
together with the humanity as a natural entity.
While nationalism was imagined and it was very
difficult for the society to accept it as it was,
language was totally different. Since it was
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something natural, it was thought to give support
to this notion because there was no other thing that
could emphasize on communality among people.
Even the ideologists of the nationalism in the
eighteenth century supported the idea that national
units were based on mutual languages. In other
words, those who speak the same language could
easily be categorized under the same nation
(Rocker, 1998).
Methodology
This is a comparative analysis of different periods
in which the public policies in Turkey about
Kurdish language went through various phases. To
achieve this aim, the atmosphere of the periods and
the political developments were discussed, and
how Kurdish language policies changed was
revealed under the effect of political
developments. This qualitative study compares and
contrasts different periods by indicating the
paradigm shifts and the effects of them on Kurdish
language. The clearest signs of the public policy
changes of the state are reflected on the laws that
were made in the parliament as a state organ. Since
these laws reflected some extreme points in
opposition, they also indicate the paradigm shifts
clearly. For that reason, the laws made in the
process are the main sources used in this study.
Later, the implementation of the laws is shown
with political developments in Turkey.
Results and discussion
Kurdish Language After 1980 In Turkey
Many of the nation states developed the strategy to
gradually outlaw the local languages in public
sphere so as to make the official language more
visible. Creating a new nation and assimilating the
minorities were two crucial premises to build a
nation state, so they perceived applying these
strategies as legitimate actions and acted in this
way (Sadoğlu, 2002).
In 1980, soldiers came to power with a coup d’état
and started to change the state so as to adapt it to
the Kemalist ideas once more. When Turkish
Republic was founded in 1923, it was formed as a
nation state and ideologically it was inclined
towards the Western World. As they determined
their route like that, they adopted all of the
literature about nationalism, which was created in
West, the framework of which was shown above.
For that reason, they put much importance on
Turkish Language and tried to disseminate it to the
public with its new form which was freed from
Ottoman components. But later, the conservative
governments did not own that sort of policy and
changed many things about it. When the soldiers
came to power in 1980, they tried to turn the state
into the form of Kemalist ideas again. In order to
achieve this, they firstly made a new constitution
and made many new laws. They again put the
article in the constitution saying that the official
language was Turkish (Law 2709, 1982).
The Army in Turkey was the first institution to
westernize in 19th century and after that time it
became the representative of Western idea in the
country. Especially the Kemalist notion expressed
itself with that idea and it was represented by the
soldiers. Nation-state in Western terms was not
supported by conservative governments and the
soldiers generally complained about it. When they
came to power in 1980, they stared to revitalize
that western tradition. In order to make Turkey an
impeccable nation state, they started to apply the
nationalist heritage to the country once again.
Since they had very little time until they leave the
power to civilian authorities, they tried to make
many laws until the elections in 1983. They also
made laws about local languages and tried to
strengthen the position of Turkish language. The
act number 18199 on 22nd October 1983 was
named as "The Act about Broadcast (and
publishing) in Other Languages than Turkish."
The first article of this law perfectly reflects the
notions which developed in nationalism.
Article 1 is as follows:
“This law regulates the principles and the
procedures about the forbidden languages in which
thoughts are expressed in order to protect social
order, national security, Republic, national
sovereignty, the indivisible integrity of the state
with its country and nation (Law No. 2932, 1983)”.
This article clearly states that if any language other
than Turkish is used in public sphere, the security
of the whole country will be in danger.
The third article of the same act is as follows:
“Article 3: The mother tongue of the Turkish
citizens is Turkish.
a) It is forbidden to attempt to use and
disseminate other languages than Turkish.”
It also outlaws broadcasting and publishing in any
other languages. The law also determined harsh
punishment when the law is violated.
The 2nd article of this law also forbids any second
language of the other sovereign countries which
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signed some international treaties with Turkey.
Only the first official language of those countries
is acceptable in Turkey. In fact this article implies
the Iraqi constitution that accepts Kurdish
language as a second language and Iraq is accepted
as a sovereign country by Turkey. As a result of
this, Turkey could have been recognizing Kurdish
because it already recognized Iraq. In order to
remove the ambiguity here, this law outlawed the
second language of that country which already
recognized it in the constitution; so Turkish
authorities clearly state that when they recognize
another country, it does not mean that they
recognize their second language, namely Kurdish
(Kubilay, 2005).
It should be clearly stated here that when Kurdish
language was forbidden as a public policy, it was
not an instant idea that emerged all of a sudden. It
is certainly a reflection of nationalist ideology
which developed throughout these two centuries.
Since the state has secular nationalist ideology,
they gave special importance to mother tongue and
assistance to nationalist idea. As a result, they
develop that kind of public policy and
implemented it in order to strengthen Turkish
nationalist approach, which led to many different
developments.
On 25th January 1991, that law was abolished by
the ruling Motherland Party. At that time the
founder of the party, Turgut Ozal, was the
President of the country and played important role
to abolish this law. After that, all of the local
languages had the opportunity to live in public
sphere. But the pressure of the soldiers on the
system was so strong that Turgut Ozal had to
rationalize this step by referring to the international
treaties. He did not attempt to show this initiative
as a step towards liberty but as a requirement of the
international treaties. Turgut Ozal expressed that
Helsinki Final Act which was signed in 1975 and
the Vienna Convention in 1989 were recognized
by Turkey and they should do what they require for
the countries. These two documents forced the
states to assure to protect and develop local
cultures and their languages (Whitman, 1992).
During the soldiers' rule between 1980 and 1983,
many laws were made to redesign the state
according to nationalist ideology. It is very hard to
say that these policies emerged as a requirement of
social sphere or social demands, but the soldiers
felt obliged to re-define the ideological position of
the state in parallel with nationalistic ideas. As for
the conservative ruling party in 1991, they did not
directly oppose to the soldiers but put forth a
different rationale for their change.
During 1990s, there were many economic
problems, PKK terrorist attacks increased, and the
Islamist movements gradually got stronger; so, the
politicians had to deal with these problems and did
not find any opportunity to handle the Kurdish
Language issue.
It was another conservative ruling party that
implemented liberal policies about Kurdish and
tried to give more freedom. Justice and
Development Party (AKP) took some major
actions to liberate this language.
Turkey went through several coup d’états and
military interventions during its history. One of the
interventions took place on 12 March 1971
asserting that the current government was not
capable enough to stop the anarchy and strife and
the state was diverging from the principles of
Ataturk. As a result of this memorandum, Demirel
government resigned, and a semi-military
government formed and started to make reforms as
the soldiers wished (Ahmad, 1977).
The new government made a law on 5 May 1972
and hindered giving names in any other languages
than Turkish. They made an Act of Demography
no 1587 and outlawed the names which were not
suitable for national culture. The AKP government
changed the article 16 of the act in 2003. Later in
2006, they totally abolished the act. The change in
2003 was as follows:
"The parents give the name to their children. But
the names that are against the common ethical rules
and that offend people cannot be given to children
(Law No. 1587, 1972)."
The first form in 1972 included “against our
traditions” which implies the names other than
Turkish was taken out of the text, so the names in
local languages again made legal in the laws.
Since Kurdish issue was very controversial in
Turkey, AKP government was not able to do much
about it, especially under the surveillance of the
soldiers during the first years of their rule. They
went through some clashes in political arena and
when it came to the year 2007, there was the
general election which ended up with a victory for
AKP and the military pressure dwindled after that
time. Later on, the government found the
opportunity to take major actions. But all of them
came gradually. Firstly in 2009, a Kurdish TV
channel under the surveillance of the state opened
up with the name TRT 6. TRT itself is the official
broadcasting company and the channel started to
serve with its name (TRT, 2022).
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In 2011, another act number 6112 about the
foundation and broadcasting services of Radio and
Television Supreme Council was issued and
private broadcasting companies were allowed to
broadcast in other languages. Article 5 of this act
says:
"Broadcasting Language
Broadcasting is primarily done in Turkish. But it is
also possible to broadcast in other local languages
and dialects. It is mandatory to broadcast in the
grammatical rules of the given language (Law No.
6112, 2011)."
The agenda formation process started two years
earlier than this act because this is a very
controversial issue, and it is difficult to prepare the
public for such a change. The Prime Minister of
that time, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressed that
this could be handled as a part of democratic
initiative program. An authority from the Supreme
Council announced that this kind of initiative is
something that European Union also endorsed so it
should be supported. Moreover, there were other
broadcasting companies which broadcast in local
languages through satellite. He said that it was not
true to totally forbid this kind of initiative and it is
also not true to give total freedom, so they should
be under state control (Haber 7, 2009).
It seems that the government wanted to base this
initiative on some logical assumptions:
1) It is part of the democratization process in the
country.
2) European Union also endorsed such a
libertarian attempt.
3) Modern technology already gives way to such
initiatives and the governments cannot hinder
them.
As it was the same with Turgut Ozal, this
government also puts forth the outer sources
compelling them to act like that. As a result, the
agenda formation process continued with
convincing the public for such policies and later
they determined what to do and how to do drawing
the boundaries and taking it under state control.
Later on, there emerged many TV channels
broadcasting in Kurdish Language (T24
Bağımsız İnternet Gazetesi, 2012).
Although AKP government started radical
initiatives, they could not take major action until
2009, which was after 2007 elections in which they
came to rule more powerfully. But during 2002-
2007 period, AKP government did not use any
initiative because of other balancing powers,
namely the soldiers who were still very effective
over political life in Turkey. Their control over
politics could be originated in the 28 February
process. As it is seen above, the second initiative
after 2009 came in the year 2011 because that year
was the year of the coming elections, and the
government was still had much public support.
It is clear from these processes that the Kemalist
ideology is strictly bound to the nationalist ideas
which emerged in West and tried to revitalize this
ideology when they had the opportunity free from
the conjuncture of the time; so, they incessantly
supported the same ideas about language issue in
every period after the foundation of Turkish
Republic in 1923.
But the template-breaking initiatives came out in
conservative world, and they followed such
policies about languages that the difference in their
ideologies is reflected here very clearly. While
Kemalist idea was bound to the premises of
nationalism and tried to assimilate the local
languages for a stronger nation, the conservative
idea continuously supported freedom to local
languages.
The policy making processes of these two different
ideas could be pinpointed in any period of time
during the Republic era. Kemalist idea took the
acquis of the western-originated nationalism for
granted and determined the policies in this
direction and they tried to create a new and
powerful nation, but for the conservative wing,
they had very different perspective and they were
partial to liberal ideas. What puts barriers on the
policies of the Kemalist ideas is first of all the
international treaties and conventions. Since even
Kemalist idea turned its face to the West, the
institutions and the rules imposed by European
countries were always very effective in Turkey
(Oran, 2009). Especially after the World War II,
the western heritage rendered liberal ideas and
formed their institutions in parallel with
democracy, liberal ideas, human rights...etc. For
this reason, Kemalist ideology did not feel free to
implement their policies. Even the conservative
governments used western ideas as their rationale
in order to alleviate the pressure coming from
Kemalist elites. As it was mentioned above both
Motherland Party government in 1991 and Justice
and Development Party government in 2009
emphasized on the same topic and showed the
western institutions and laws as a source for their
attempts. When we look at the conservative
governments, they generally felt the pressure
coming from soldiers, but when they found an
opportunity to act freely, they made radical
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changes in the system as it was shown in Kurdish
Language issue.
The initiatives of AKP government were not
limited to the ones mentioned above. After the
democratization process, Kurdish Language
started to appear more in public sphere. It started
to be used in media, education, local governments
and many public places more freely. During this
process, people were given the right to support
themselves in the courts of law and the local
governments were able to give Kurdish names to
streets. Kurdish Language courses were allowed to
open and later it was expanded to universities
which had the right to open Kurdology
departments and even use Kurdish as a medium
language. It was also freed to give Kurdish names
and some letters which do not exist in Turkish
alphabet but used in Kurdish were allowed to be
used (İnal, 2012).
What is here to be emphasized is that the AKP
government felt obliged to take action about this
issue because of its ideology, but this was not the
pure reason. There were demands about it from the
Kurdish community after 2000; especially the
Kurdish university students asked for the rights to
get education in their native language. Even in
2004, they took this issue to European Court of
Human Rights, which caused many debates in
Turkey. The soldiers tried to stop these initiatives,
but the government tried hard to give freedom at
that time. In 2010, Peace and Democracy Party, a
political party which asserted that they were trying
to get rights for Kurdish people, started a campaign
and did not send Kurdish children to schools until
they got their rights. In fact, they intended to put
pressure on the government for more freedom to
Kurdish people and language (İnal, 2012).
From another point of view, it is seen that there are
some external reasons forcing governments to
adopt all these policies. Especially after 1999, with
the process of harmonization with the European
Union, many freedoms were tried to be opened and
local languages took their share in this regard.
Within the framework of these harmonization
studies, many issues in the European Union acquis
came to the fore and it was tried to harmonize with
the European Union with the laws made. In this
context, freedoms also were given to local
languages (İnal, 2012).
At this point, it should be noted that the policies
put into practice by the state regarding the Kurdish
language are not in a position to be discussed only
in its own context. More generally, within the
general framework of some of the rights that are
demanded to be granted to all Kurdish citizens,
their own language was also included and
discussed in this context. Therefore, policies
related to Kurdish emerged as a sub-title of policies
regarding Kurdish citizens, which can be discussed
in a wider context.
Conclusion
The situation of Kurdish language, which emerged
as a public policy in the state, took shape as a
reflection of ideological approaches and took
different positions within the state according to the
periods when different understandings prevailed. It
was seen in this period that each understanding
followed consistent policies in its own ideological
perspective. However, when this issue was
understood differently by various actors, different
problems emerged, and different policies were
produced within the state in response to this
situation. After 1980, the members of the army,
who adopted the Kemalist view, forbade the
speaking of other languages in Turkey as a
requirement of the nationalist ideology and
engaged in an uncompromising behavior in this
regard. These policies, on the one hand, created a
situation contrary to the agreements put forward by
the international community, which brought a
different dimension to human rights and
continuously developed this understanding, and on
the other hand, they were not found correct by
conservative governments that adopted liberal and
libertarian understanding in Turkey.
Within the framework of this understanding, the
fact that conservative parties were generally more
generous about the rights to be given to the Kurds
also affected public policies on Kurdish language
and urged them to take initiatives to pave the way
for freedoms in this regard.
As a result, it is possible to talk about three main
factors affecting the public policies regarding
Kurdish language:
1) Turkey's efforts to adapt to the development of
the idea of providing freedom to any local
language, which is a natural structure within
the framework of the understanding of human
rights developed by the international
community, and the insistence of this idea by
international agreements.
2) Conservative governments see this issue as an
area of freedom within the framework of a
more liberal and libertarian understanding and
act accordingly.
3) Demands from citizens of Kurdish origin
create pressure.
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With the compulsion of these three main motives,
libertarian steps were gradually taken in the
Kurdish language and some arrangements were
made despite traditional statist objections.
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