During the 5th meeting of the National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Commission established in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the Peace Mothers were prevented from speaking in Kurdish.
While Nezahat Teke and Rebia Kıran’s request to speak in Kurdish was rejected, the words spoken in Kurdish were recorded in the minutes as “…”. The relevant section of the minutes was annotated as “In this section, a non-Turkish word was expressed by the speaker”. This statement was reminiscent of the “unknown language” debates of the past.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş cited “Parliament’s bylaws and the official language regulation” as the reason. DEM Party MP Meral Danış Beştaş and CHP MP Sezgin Tanrıkulu’s request for translation was also rejected.
IHD called on the Presidency of the Parliament to apologize and stated that this attitude is against the essence of the search for peace. Peace Mothers, on the other hand, described the prevention of their Kurdish speech as “injustice”.
August 21, 2025
Numedya24