Turkish Kurdish Party Marks Mother Language Day with Call for Constitutional Protection of Kurdish Language
On Feb. 21, 2026, DEM Party lawmakers in Diyarbakir called on Turkish authorities to constitutionally protect the Zazaki and Kurmanji dialects, sending letters to Türkiye’s Education Ministry and UNESCO warning of risks facing the Kurdish language.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - On Feb. 21, 2026, in the city of Diyarbakir in Kurdistan of Türkiye, lawmakers and officials from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party organized an event marking International Mother Language Day, renewing calls for constitutional guarantees to protect the Kurdish language.
During the event, Serhat Eren, a DEM Party lawmaker representing the Diyarbakir constituency, called on Turkish authorities to ensure constitutional protection for the Zazaki and Kurmanji dialects.
As part of the activity, a letter was sent to Türkiye’s Ministry of Education and to UNESCO, warning of the risk of extinction facing Zazaki and demanding legal and constitutional safeguards.
Each year on Feb. 21, Kurdish institutions and political parties in Kurdistan of Türkiye organize campaigns and various activities to protect the Kurdish language. According to the organizers, the Turkish state has not officially recognized Kurdish, and under the country’s constitution only Turkish is recognized as the official language.
The issue has also surfaced inside the Turkish parliament, where microphones are often cut off when Kurdish lawmakers speak in their mother tongue. In official records, the Kurdish language has been described as an “unknown language” or “another language”.
In recent periods, the government has imposed several bans on Kurdish theater performances and concerts, prompting concern among activists and reinforcing ongoing efforts to secure broader recognition of the Kurdish language.
Feb. 21 marks International Mother Language Day, established by UNESCO in 1999 at the request of the Government of Bangladesh. The date commemorates the 1952 killing of Bengali protesters demanding recognition of their language, an event that later contributed to Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.
The day seeks to raise global awareness of multilingualism and cultural diversity. For Kurds, it has become a recurring moment to highlight linguistic rights and the enduring struggle to preserve their mother tongue amid political and cultural pressures.