The Exchange

The readers of France’s Elle magazine voted the 10 year old Kurdish girl Medya Ormek as the woman of the week for her unique initiative to take advantage of the campaign of ‘One Story for every home’ by the Sur District Council of the Greater Diyarbakir area in the South-East of Turkey by reading stories in Kurdish to 27 Kurdish children in her room. Her plight highlighted by Elle, is also taken up by Turkish newspaper Taraf.

The girl now awaits the outcome of the investigation against her by the Turkish authorities. In theory Kurdish is legal to use within Turkey, although education is yet to be given a green light. Medya Ormek is being investigated for wanting to read stories in her native tongue, and share it with her Kurdish friends unable to read in Kurdish. All Kurdish children are expected to switch to Turkish as soon as they start school. The majority of the Kurdish children are disadvantaged in education because of the time it takes for them to grasp and learn a totally new language to that they were brought up with.

Now the Kurdish children want to use their most basic fundamental right : to read in Kurdish. Despite the positive assessment by the EU of Turkey’s human rights record , the Kurdish population is still unable to give expression to their most basic demands, which is to educate their children in their native tongue. The parents not able to name their children in Kurdish.

The gravity and the senselessness of the investigation against Medya Ormek is yet to be justified. This surely in itself demands a rebuke from the EU against the over-zealous Turkey who is desperate to please the EU, yet unwilling to do away with its dictatorial practices that target innocent children for wanting to be Kurdish.