Naomî, my inspiration and a CALL!*

"Therefore I call upon everyone to print and hang to their wall the ‘language contract’ we have made and of which the download links for the Zazakî, Kurmancî and Soranî version are given beneath. This contract functions as a contract between the person signing and his or her conscious. In general, after signing the contract and hanging it to your wall, you promise to do anything in your power to ensure the existence of our language and to protect it."


Naomî, my inspiration and a CALL!* - By Sidar Bengin Epozdemir

In a time where it’s impossible not to use the Kurdish expression ‘I can’t scratch my head’, I lifted my foot of the brakes of live and found myself able to head for a country which is an extremely dangerous place to go to, when you’re not able to do all your travelling on the left side (yes, including walking through hallways in hotels): England.


Come to think of it, ‘being able’ implies that I actually had a free will. This would actually cover the rather undemocratic and Saddamistic approach my diary puts on me. No, no, let’s be honest, I didn’t have the time at all! My trip to tealand, gentlemenland and the-hell-with-you-I’m-proud-of-being-a-guard-and-I-won’t-move-a-muscle-until-you’ve-touched-me-land was in fact because of Kurdish traditions, but more important because of my love for my cousin Welat and the to that amount of love matching amount of excitement for his wedding.

Now us Kurds we often have a tendency to consider ourselves as either of the side of the groom, or the side the bride. But this wedding wasn’t like that. Both my brother Welat, as my sister Naomî I admire a great deal. Welat inspires me through his academic achievements, whereas Naomî gives me loads of joy every time she shows off with her sweet Kurdish tongue.

I still remember the day I met Naomî: she opened the door on me and greeted me with ‘Tu gelek bi xêr hatî’…

Four years and a handful of worn books later, Naomî speaks Kurdish at a very decent level and my heart was filled with joy when I heard my dear sister welcome everyone to the wedding in both English as in Kurdish…

I know it’s weird to say for us Kurds, but I even felt very proud of her…

Maybe also because there’s no doubt in my mind that Naomî and Welat’s children will learn both English and Kurdish and will along with these abilities live their live in a bicultural way. And even if their parents don’t succeed in teaching them Kurdish, I’m sure they will give them the strength to learn it on their own!

Everyone that reads this is my witness: I’m willing to bet on all of my student support for this.

Now why is Naomî’s story, a story of an English girl who’s learnt Kurdish all by herself so important to us?

First of all, because we are to be proud and honoured by the fact that our language, the 31st language of the world according to Le français dans le Monde, is interesting enough to be considered worth learning by someone who doesn’t have a Kurdish background.

But we should also be sad for the fact that Kurdistan’s enemies have affected the status and with that the amount of speakers of our sweet language in such a great way, that it’s now is indeed in an endangered position.

So what can we do? We can do a lot, obviously. The battle still hasn’t been lost and it doesn’t have to be either. TZP-Kurdî’s recent manifestation in Gever, which was attended by thousands of Kurdish loving people is therefore not worth underestimating. I hereby thank them for their efforts and hope they will carry on with making efforts to secure the existence of our language and consequently the existence of our identity…

A Call!

We can also do something. It doesn’t have to be, organising a great manifestation or shaking Ban-Ki-Moon’s hand on the Kurdish language. Let’s start by simply making a promise.

Therefore I call upon everyone to print and hang to their wall the ‘language contract’ we have made and of which the download links for the Zazakî, Kurmancî and Soranî version are given beneath. This contract functions as a contract between the person signing and his or her conscious. In general, after signing the contract and hanging it to your wall, you promise to do anything in your power to ensure the existence of our language and to protect it.

It’s the 21st century and the states that have left us in their shade have succesfully made us ‘the world’s greatest nation without an own state’.

Let’s not let them succeed in making us first ‘the world’s greatest nation that doesn’t speak their own language’ and then ‘the world’s greatest nation that has been vanished’.

WE (!) can do something about this. Naomî has shown us.

Her bijî zimanê kurdî…Long live the Kurdish language…

Sidar Bengin Epozdemir
sidaro4@hotmail.com
http://www.cakbini.com/

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DOWNLOAD THE LANGUAGE CONTRACT:

Kurmancî: www.rojnamenus.eu/kurmanci.pdf
Soranî: www.rojnamenus.eu/sorani.pdf
Zazakî: www.rojnamenus.eu/zazaki.pdf
(Note: in order to download the contract it may very well be that it will not suffice that you simply click on it. Click on the right button of your mouse and select ‘Save Target As’/’Doel Opslaan Als’/’Farkli Kaydet’ and there shouldn’t be a problem.)

For more information on this project visit www.cakbini.com or the special English page that has been set up there at: http://cakbini.blogspot.com/2008/06/selfcontract-kurdish-language.html


Because of the importance of the project I send the different versions of this article, Kurmancî-Kurdish, Soranî-Kurdish, English, Turkish and Dutch to various Kurdish websites. It’s contrary to what my principles are, but for this time I will have to share the idea with all of the Kurdish media in order to it a chance to show their support to this idea. In addition, everyone is free to use the material (the contracts) and actively execute this project. I myself have already printed the contract and have hung it on my wall) With many thanks to Roşan Lezgîn and Hemen Abdullah for their help with the Zazakî and Soranî-versions of the contract.

Sidar Bengin Epozdemir is a young Kurdish journalist and writer from the Netherlands. He runs a weblog for young Kurdish writers by the name of Çakbînî (optimism in Kurdish) and writes and has written in Dutch, English and Kurdish for various journals and online-newspapers such as Netkurd.com, Avestakurd.net, Rizgari.com, KurdishMedia.com, Azady.nl and Cakbini.com.

This article has also been published on websites like AvestaKurd in Kurdish and it will be published in various languages on other websites.