The Message of the Organizing Committee of the Zara Award for Serving the Kurdish Language

Ladies and Gentlemen in presenting ceremony of the first Zara Award for the Kurdish Language:

Language is the main definition of a nation. The existence of any nation depends primarily on the survival of its language. Throughout history, especially in the past century, dozens of languages have disappeared from the earth, and the speakers of these languages have accepted the language of their neighbors or their religion and forgotten their own. Thus, they have assimilated among other nations, have become part of these nations, and have lost their language. Thus, they have assimilated among other nations and have become part of these nations that have lost their language.

In the past century, especially after World War I, the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of nation-states in the Middle East, the dominant states in Kurdistan, especially in the three parts of North, West, East, and part of South Kurdistan, have tried to destroy the Kurds by dissolving and assimilating this nation.

The policy of linguistic repression and soft genocide, especially in North and East Kurdistan, has been more severe than in other parts of Kurdistan. In these two parts of Kurdistan, millions of Kurds have been washed away from their identities due to the policies of assimilation and now either consider themselves Turks and Persians or, like many Lori and Bakhtiari, consider themselves a different nation from Kurds. This policy has been trying to separate the Laki from Kurdistan for several years. For this purpose, the Academy of Persian Language and Literature

has recognized the Laki, a Kurdish dialect, as an independent language, while it has not yet announced its official policy towards the Kurdish language.

In response to the efforts of the Kurdish invaders, the Kurdish people, writers, intellectuals, and political and civil activists have tried their best to preserve, develop and advance the Kurdish language.

Over the past two decades in East Kurdistan, civil organizations have played a major role in preserving and developing the Kurdish language through teaching and education in this language and have voluntarily taught hundreds and thousands of Kurdish children to read and write in their mother tongue. They have faced many obstacles, but they have not given up.

Last year, two female Kurdish language teachers, Zara Mohammadi and Mozhgan Kavousi, were imprisoned by the Iranian judiciary on charges of disruption of national security simply for teaching Kurdish to Kurdish children.

The imprisonment of Kurdish language teachers, which is a clear sign of the Iranian authorities' opposition to Kurdish language education and education in Kurdish, reflects the dangerous situation that Kurdish language teachers, Kurdish language education activists, and Kurdish writers face in this part of Kurdistan.

Therefore, as Kurdshop organization we decided to show our tribute to these two teachers and all teachers who serve the Kurdish language, we decided to announce the Zara Award for serving the Kurdish language, and every year on the anniversary of Zara Mohammadi's imprisonment be presented to activist organizations or individuals who served the Kurdish language.

It is obvious that hundreds of people throughout Kurdistan are volunteering to serve the Kurdish language and many have spent their lives in this way. Therefore, nominating a person or institution for this award does not mean ignoring the service of others. This effort is the voluntary effort of several Kurdish activists within the framework of a civil organization, and we hope that government institutions and universities in Kurdistan, pay more attention to volunteer Kurdish language workers in all four parts of Kurdistan.

The Kurdshop Board of Directors congratulates the first winner who has been selected by the jury for the Zara Award for Kurdish Language Service.

We wish this organization, which has done a lot of service to the Kurdish language through the efforts and voluntary work of dozens of young people in East Kurdistan, to continue its work and activities and serve the Kurdish language and not face any obstacles.

The Board of Directors of Kurdshop Organization