There are many Kurdish people who live in the east part of Turkey. They have their own language as Kurdish however, in schools education language is Turkish. At homes, these people speak their own language so, Turkish is as a second language for them. It is a significant and big issue for education. There is a documentary that is called as “İki Dil, Bir Bavul” and that is about this issue.
The documentary is about a teacher who has gone to the east part of Turkey for primary school. When the documentary has seen, it can be seen obviously the life in east is hard. The teacher has gone from west part of Turkey and he faced with some difficulties in there. Especially, communicating with students because they do not know Turkish. One of the father of the student said to the teacher, “ Turkish is our second language.”. At homes they speak Kurdish and at school Kurdish is banned and the students must speak Turkish. However, they can not learn Turkish easily. The teacher can not expain something in Kurdish even he does not know Kurdish. On the other hand, little students does not know Turkish. There is no communication between teacher and the students. That is the reason of the lack of education in these areas of Turkey.
To interpret the documentary in a good way, the concept of “Cultural Citizenship” must be known. To give a brief explanation fot cultural citizenship concept, it can be said that it refers to the right to be different as race, ethnicity and native language on the view of the norms of the dominant national community and with respect to attend the process of democracy[1]. This definition is appropriate for Kurdish people who live in Turkey. They are citizens of Turkey however they come from different ethnicity and they have their own culture and language. However, the usage of their language is banned. There is not any school that has Kurdish education. In addition to that, they are forced to be “Turkish”. They say, “we are Kurdish but we are Turkish citizenship.”. That is the right explanation for their situation. However, many people do not accept that. Thus, little Kurdish students say Turkish Oath everyday even without not understanding the sentences from Oath.
To eliminate problems, firstly “cultural citizenship” must be accepted by all people. Many people must accept that there are other people who have another ethnicity, culture and language. They are Turkish citizenship however they are not Turkish. For example, at the documentary it is showed that, teacher does not communicate with children so there could be an explanation in a clear language which students can understand [2]. In my opinion, for students who are going to primary school, there could be a teacher who knows both Kurdish and Turkish as a language teacher.
To sum up, all problems are occured because of trying to assimilate the minorities for making homogeneous national identity [3]. For these aims, there are many laws that try to make citizens speak one language and think at the same way all together. However, this can be the reason of the problems. If laws accept these groups and regulate many things that are appropriate to this sitıation, problems can be reduced.
RESOURCES
[1] Rosaldo R., Cultural Citizenship in San Jose, California, Retrieved from ANTH 354 Reader (2010)
[2] Delgado J., Cultural Citizenship and the Creation of European Identity, 1997, Retrieved from
[3] Kirisci K., Mirage or Reality: Postnational Turkey and its Implication for Immigration, Retrieved from SUCourse.
[4] İki Dil, Bir Bavul
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