Teachers’ Union releases message for International Mother Language Day
The Western Thrace Turkish Teachers' Union (BTTÖB) issued a statement that featured important messages on February 21, International Mother Language Day,
BTTÖB administrative board mentioned the importance of mother tongue and Turkish and issued the following statement:
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY!
The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day in 1999. Every February 21st, numerous events around the world are held to promote international reconciliation, cultural diversity, and multilingualism by bringing attention to mother tongue. The mother tongue is important in terms of ensuring communication between mother and child, expressing feelings and thoughts, and establishing communication within the community. In addition to communication, the mother tongue serves as a cultural carrier. Tales, stories, lullabies and folk songs learned from family and close environment are also transferred from generation to generation with the mother tongue.
A person's mother tongue is the language that he or she learns from their mother, family, and environment without following any rules or going through a conscious learning process. It is then developed through oral and written education. It enables the person to recognize the culture to which he or she belongs, to preserve it, to transfer it to the future and to enrich it. Every culture exists only with its own language, and it is meaningful with that language. It establishes a link between a person's history and future, and it brings them back to their own roots. It is decisive in the formation of a person's identity and personality. It enables people to recognize the world, nature, and environment. It is possible to express one's deepest feelings and make sense of life using one's mother tongue. It is a scientifically proven fact that persons who are well educated and know their native language learn other foreign languages faster.
Confucius says: "If you want to destroy a nation, first start with its language".
Breaking or being cut off from a person's mother tongue means not only breaking his ties with his family and nation, but also breaking his ties with the world. Nations who have lost their language will not be able to survive as a nation. When a person loses his mother tongue, he abandons many national values as well. The mother tongue can only be developed through written language and education in that language. It is extremely difficult, even impossible, for communities who are deprived of mother tongue education to develop their language, learn their culture and transfer it on to future generations. Sociologists, psychologists, instructors, and others in the education field have found that people express their feelings and thoughts best in their own language. Everyone agrees that disconnecting children from their mother tongue is the worst form of torture that can be perpetrated on them! “He or she who loses his language loses his religion, nationality and personality.” Every community, and therefore every individual, has the right to learn and use their mother tongue and to receive education in their mother tongue. This is a universal human right.
As a result, we, the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace, demand bilingual Turkish-Greek education in kindergartens, and we repeat this demand at every opportunity. Forcing our children to attend kindergarten in one language, even though they will receive bilingual education two years later, is an outdated and unjust approach. It is our desire to establish these schools, which will play a significant part in the development of the mother language, based on a curriculum oriented toward development and enrichment, analogous to that of primary schools. As a result, we are strongly opposed to the closure of minority primary schools under the pretext of a shortage of students. The existence of these schools, which will develop our mother tongue in written language, is of vital importance. We wish our minority children to have this opportunity easily in the environment they are in, rather than using the transport system. For the reasons listed above, we do not believe it is appropriate for our children to transition from minority primary schools to public schools. We want libraries or bookcases to be created in minority primary schools that will allow our children to easily access books written in their mother tongue and appropriate for their age. We hereby announce once again to all authorities our request for a school that will enable them to receive bilingual education, especially for our disabled children. This school is a must. Leaving these exceptional children, who can hardly understand what is said in their mother tongue, in the hands of an educator who issues directives in a language they have never heard before is a far away from contemporary education. Turkish teachers who teach our children in their mother tongue should be capable of completing their vocational training in Turkey, and we expect the authorities to do so in good faith. We also demand minority teachers who graduated from education faculties of Turkish universities to be assigned to our primary schools.
We celebrate World Mother Language Day once more with these feelings and thoughts!
WESTERN THRACE TURKISH TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION ADMINISTRATIVE BOARD
