Kurdish Intellectuals React Against Dalan

Dalan, who had claimed that the Kurdish language was composed of only 600 words, was accused of speaking on a subject about which he had insufficient knowledge. In the interview with Zaman’s Nuriye Akman, Dalan, rejecting assertions that Kurdish is a rich language, said, "If Yasar Kemal can write a 30,000-word Kurdish novel, I will publish and distribute it." Dalan’s critics claim that Kurdish has a vocabulary of 100,000 words.
Abdulmelik Firat, the grandson of Shaik Sait and leader of the Rights and Freedoms Party (HAK-PAR), described Dalan’s words about Kurdish as a "blacksmith’s attempt to be an eye doctor." Firat stated that he was not his relative, contrary to claims made by Dalan. Istanbul Kurdish Institute Chairman Sefik Beyaz said that Dalan was neither ignorant nor acting deliberately but added that there were thousands of books published in Kurdish. Abdullah Kiran, the editor of Kurdish-language magazine Gulistan, saying that people were afraid of speaking in Kurdish since it was not allowed in Turkey, said that Kurdish consists of 70,000 words. Journalist-writer Altemur Kilic said in support of Dalan, "Kurdish is probably not a language in which to write Shakespeare, for instance."

Habib Guler / Ankara / TURKEY