A Few Notes on Azeri and Kurdish…

While planning the third part of SLEEPING GIANT: IĞDIR, an article I read on social media prompted me to insert this piece. A respected elder (A.S.) of Azeri origin, a doyen of Iğdır, who has guided and contributed to Iğdır with his political and journalistic experience, was subjected to a vocal attack, with statements bordering on excommunication, for using the expression “Azeri” instead of “Azerbaijani Turkish.” I was very disturbed. I decided that some clarification was needed on this matter. At the very least, I wanted to open my own views for discussion.

First, I would like to briefly share some information about myself. I have always had a curiosity and interest in languages. While I speak several languages fluently, I have also conducted and continue to conduct long-term studies on many others. In 2006, I stayed in the Republic of Azerbaijan for six months. I immersed myself in the language used by the people. I even compiled a dictionary of up to 500 words. I wrote several articles on the language and languages spoken in Azerbaijan, translated them into English, and sent them to American friends who were pursuing doctoral studies on the subject. In short, I want to say that what I will write is based on first-hand experience and a historically deep perspective.

When evaluating a language, there are two approaches:

1. Examining a language from a linguistic perspective;
2. Examining a language from the perspective of political tendencies and preferences.

It is very interesting that Kurds and Azeris (Azerbaijani Turks) experience this problem independently and in parallel.

First, I would like to write my views on Azeri / Azerbaijani / Azerbaijani Turkish. First, some commonly held misconceptions need to be corrected:

1. The word “Azeri” was invented by the Russians with the aim of severing the connection of Azerbaijani Turks with their brother Turkey and disrupting their social integrity: This statement does not reflect the truth. The Russians called all Turks in their empire “Tatars.” They never used the word “Azeri.” The word “Azeri” was used by Iranians. Today, Russians use the expression азербайджанский язык (Azerbaijani language) for Azeri or Azerbaijani Turkish. We even know that Azeri was taught in schools established at the end of the 19th century in Baku and Ganja under the name Russko-Tatarskaya Şkola (Russian-Tatar School).
2. North and South Azerbaijan were divided by the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay. In this sense, both Azerbaijans developed separately for nearly 200 years. While North Azerbaijan (today's Republic of Azerbaijan) remained under the influence of Tsarist and Soviet Russia, South Azerbaijan largely fell into the sphere of influence of Iran and Iranian Khanates. Naturally, the language of both Azerbaijans developed along different lines, influenced by the main culture they were part of. Today, education in Azerbaijani Turkish / Azeri is forbidden in South Azerbaijan.
3. North Azerbaijan experienced three alphabet changes within a century. Arabic script until 1929; Old Latin from 1929-1938; Cyrillic script from 1938-1991; new Latin script since 1991. I would like to remind you that alphabet change is the biggest blow that can be dealt to a language, and now I want to address the main issue:

From a linguistic perspective, considering the morphological and phonological changes, both North and South Azerbaijani languages are accepted as independent languages. (See ISO 639-2 Code). Moreover, some circles in Turkey tend to present and prove Azerbaijani Turkish / Azeri as a dialect of Turkish. Linguistics is one thing, political projects and concerns are another… It has always struck me: during my stay in Azerbaijan, none of the Turkish entrepreneurs who had been in Azerbaijan for decades spoke Azerbaijani Turkish / Azeri properly or even bothered to speak it. The Azerbaijani population understood the Istanbul dialect, either due to the influence of Turkish TV series they watched or the popularity of Turkish schools, but they could not speak it. This is an experience taken from life that proves the existence of two independent languages.

The ideal of Turan and the idea of uniting all Turkic republics in a single state naturally necessitate the existence of a common language. Some also agree that this should be Istanbul Turkish, and therefore tend to view all other Turkic languages as dialects. This is a political perspective. Proving the opposite is perceived as a betrayal of the “Turan ideal.” However, from a linguistic perspective, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Kazakh, Chagatay, Yakut, South Azerbaijani Turkish, and North Azerbaijani Turkish are independent languages.

Now let's turn to Kurdish and the Kurdish world… A similar situation to the above is experienced among Kurds. Political understandings that target the ideal of Greater Kurdistan view Kurmanji, Sorani, Zazaki, and Gorani as dialects, and strive to unite all of them to create a single language. Since Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish) constitutes the majority, it is desired that, just like with Istanbul Turkish, all other dialects should learn Kurmanji and forget their own languages. This is a political approach. From a linguistic perspective, Kurmanji, Sorani, Zazaki, and Gorani are independent languages. For example, in Kurmanji, nouns are divided into masculine and feminine. This does not exist in Sorani. Additionally, Kurmanji has two different subject groups.

Ez diçim (I am going)

Min nan xwar (I ate bread) as seen in these examples, it has two different subject groups.

Most importantly, Kurmanji has an ergative structure, which is found in very few languages in the world. This does not exist in Sorani.

Te ez ditim. (You saw me) However, the verb “ditim” is in agreement with “ez” and not “te.”

From a linguistic perspective, these are very serious differences. Therefore, Kurmanji, Sorani, Zazaki, and Gorani are each independent languages. A Kurd evaluating my statements in a political sense might well step forward and say, “You are dividing Kurds with languages, you are falling for the game of imperialism, you are harming the ideal of Kurdistan.”

As I said, if the issue is viewed from a linguistic and political perspective, everything becomes clearer. The interesting thing is that the teaching of Azerbaijani Turkish as a mother tongue in schools is forbidden in South Azerbaijan, just as Kurmanji and Zazaki are forbidden in Turkey.

The parallelism in terms of linguistic and political evaluation between Azeris and Kurds is interesting and surprising. So, how can we, who live in this geography, overcome this problem? In my next article, I will address this issue and then continue my series of articles on SLEEPING GIANT: IĞDIR.