The Turkish state, including the country and the people, is one piece and undivided. The language of the state is Turkish. Its flag is red as defined in the law and its moon and star are white.

This is Article 3 of the 1982 Turkish Constitution, one of three articles that cannot be amended.

Before the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in the early 1920s, the Kurds were much better off in terms of freedom of language than after and could publish a number of newspapers in their own language. 

With the Justice and Development Party (AKP) coming to power in the early 2000s, the Kurdish language was recognized to some extent as part of the European Union reforms.

Between 2001 and 2009, a number of obstacles to the use and learning of the Kurdish language were removed. Kurdish was allowed to be used in education, politics, the media, the press and everyday life. The removal of these obstacles coincided with the removal of a number of constitutional and legal obstacles to the Kurdish language.

All progress and reforms continued until 2015, but with the end of the peace process that year and the subsequent coup attempt in 2016, the state quickly returned to its previous policies. This means that the gains made in Kurdish language and culture could be banned again.

"There is no such thing as the Kurdish problem in Turkey," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said. "We have solved this problem for a long time, we have overcome it and we have ended it.

Although efforts to teach the Kurdish language in Turkey continue, the experience of the past 100 years has shown that unless the Kurdish language is guaranteed by the constitution and law in Turkey, it is always likely to be lost, its use criminalized, marginalized, unrecognized and unable to be normalized.