SORGUL ŞÊXO

Hesekê – Due to the racist ideology and policies of the Baathist regime, many peoples in Syria were deprived of their right to speak their language and to practice their culture for years. The Kurds were exploited for years because of these policies. During the period of the Baathist regime, many Kurdish youth and women learned Kurdish secretly at home in order to protect their mother language. 28-year-old Eyhan Yunis is one of them. She secretly learned the Kurdish language with her friends in 2001. In time, she improved her language and becomes a teacher. Now, she wins the hearts of many students and teachers with her smiling face. She told her story to NuJINHA.

Eyhan Yunis began to talk about the repression against the Kurdish language. “As a result of the genocidal and oppressive policies against the Kurdish people, the Kurdish language was banned in Syria as well as in the rest of the world. Language protects the culture of people. However, it was a dream for us to read and write in our own language. After the Syrian crisis broke out in Daraa, Damascus, and other cities in Syria, we began to take a breath in our region. We wanted to establish a foundation for the Kurdish language in Til Temir by taking advantage of the situation in the country. We formed a group consisting of two women and later this number increased to eight. All-female members of the group were hardworking women. They voluntarily participated in the work of the language committee.  One of the members was Martyr Arjin. She joined the YPJ. She lost her life in the attack of Jabhat al-Nusra. We began to work more with the spirit of friends who lost their lives.”

“Speaking Kurdish was forbidden”

Eyhan Yunis gave information about how they carried out their works for the Kurdish language under the Baathist regime, and said, “We learned the Kurdish language secretly in houses. We changed the house every week so that our location would not be revealed. When I first started learning Kurdish, I didn’t know even a word in Kurdish. Speaking Kurdish at schools was forbidden.”

“We realized our dream”

Eyhan Yunis was a member of the language committee now. “An assembly was established under the leadership of M. Herekol (Nom de guerre of Hisen Çawiş). A committee was formed under the umbrella of the assembly. I was a member of this committee. Learning and teaching Kurdish was a dream for us but we realized our dream.”

Kurdish language Institute

In a short time, Eyhan Yunis became a Kurdish teacher. “We could give Kurdish course for only one hour every day at schools until 2014. In 2015, the Kurdish language became the main subject at schools. In the same year, Ş. Jiyan Institute was founded to teach the Kurdish language.”

Emphasizing that Kurdish students learn Arabic and Arab students learn Kurdish, Eyhan Yunis said, “Until the third grade of primary school, Kurds study in Kurdish and Arabs in Arabic. Kurdish students begin to learn Arabic and Arab students begin to learn Kurdish at fourth grade.  In this way, the two peoples learn each other's language. Toıday, we have thousands of teachers. They teach our mother language. We also have our own university.”