Report Exposes Systematic Criminalisation of the Kurdish Language in Turkey

A 2025 monitoring report has documented more than 70 concrete violations of Kurdish language and cultural rights across Turkey, describing the pattern as systematic rather than isolated.

Incidents ranged from the detention of young people for singing Kurdish songs on the street in Hakkari to the jailing of an 86-year-old religious scholar for reading a sermon in Kurdish, and the removal of Kurdish expressions from parliamentary minutes.

The report warns that the use of Kurdish is being criminalised across public life, from schools and courthouses to prisons. (Kurdish Monitoring)