Rifat Roni, 59, has been charged with “membership of an armed organization” due to his involvement in a civil society group called the Mesopotamian Language and Culture Research Association (MED-DER) that offers Kurdish language classes.
“The case against Roni is just one among a slew of outrageous cases over the past year in which Kurdish language songs, dances, and promotion of cultural and linguistic rights have been interpreted by the police and prosecutors as evidence of links with terrorism,” said Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The rights monitor said that the prosecutor concluded that the aim of organizations like MED-DER is “to secure recruitment of youths to the rural areas by using Kurdish language and winning over youths to the ideology of the PKK armed terrorist group.”
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has fought for greater Kurdish political and cultural rights in Turkey for decades. It is designated a terror organization by Ankara.
Roni was one of 30 people arrested in September in raids following an investigation by the Diyarbakir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Medya News reported. Only Roni was kept in custody.
He faces “a possible five to ten year prison sentence if convicted,” according to HRW.
Turkey has arrested and investigated Kurds for their culture and linguistics linking them to terrorism countless times.
“Kurdish language classes are barely accessible to most school children in the national education system in Türkiye, even though by law they should be available as a two-hour per week elective option. Associations like MED-DER have tried to offer Kurdish language classes to fill this gap,” said the HRW.
A study by the Socio-Political Field Research Center highlights the declining use of Kurdish at home in Turkey. The survey, conducted in May 2024, revealed that only 42.2 percent of Kurds speak Kurdish regularly at home.
Although the Kurdish language is no longer banned in Turkey, the official language of education and government institutions is solely Turkish. Following the local elections held in March this year, the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which won the majority of municipalities in Kurdish areas, started initiatives to promote Kurdish and non-Turkish languages in their regions, including through cultural events such as street festivals.