‘Right of mother tongue-based health is above politics’

* Photo: AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Şişli Branch of the Health and Social Service Laborers Union (SES) has requested healthcare services in mother language in Turkey.

Releasing a statement on the occasion of February 21 International Mother Language Day yesterday, the SES said in Kirmanckî and Kurmanji dialects of Kurdish, Turkish, Syriac, Arabic, Armenian and English: "Right of mother tongue-based health is above politics."

The statement of the union read as follows in English:

'It is a fundamental human right'

"The right of benefiting from health servirces evenly without any kind of discrimination is a fundamental human right. In this regard, each individual should be entitled to access to the mother tongue based health.

"Education, science and culture organizations within the United Nations (UNESCO) declared February 21 mother tongue day in 2000. It is beyond doubt that student's movements and national activities related to mother tongue in Bangladesh played a big role in determining this special day.

"The persistence of Turkey's political mindset on single language politics is totally shameful, considering the fact that there are states accommodating tens of official languages simultaneously throughout the world, and new lives have been speculated in different planets within these conditions at this stage. This perspective trivialises human's life to the utmost.

"Tens of millions of citizens from different national backgrounds cannot benefit from preventive or curative health services as a basic result of this understanding mentioned above. Millions of refugees and migrants, particularly Syrians, have been deprived of fundamental health rights.

'Cosmpolitan culture must be preserved'

"Giving mother tongue based qualified health services on a universal basis and benefitting from fundamental health rights must be tackled as a fundamental human right, apart from constricting political impositions.

"Analysing the experiences of mother tongue based accessible health services in some neighbours of Turkey, such as Iran, North eastern part of Syria and Iraq Federal Kurdish governments shall be informative.

"Multicoloured and cosmopolitan culture of Anatolia and Mesopotamia should be preserved; legal and practical regulations should urgently be made in order for all people to benefit from equal, qualified, accessible, free public health services in their own mother tongues, particularly Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian, Asyrian, Circassian, Laz, Azeri, Albanian and Chveneburi communities." (RT/SD)