When Gilgamesh was silenced:
an epic and intellectual captivity of a nation!
Gilgamesh is the world's oldest written literary work - a story that was formed in the heart of Mesopotamia, in the same geography where the ancestors of the Kurds lived. It's a work that has inspired myths, religious stories and epic poetry for millennia
But ironically, when the Kurds tried to reclaim their part of this heritage, they were not met with pride - but with silence, bureaucracy, and intellectual blockade.
In the 1970s, Kurdish scientist Taha Baqir published an Arabic-language version of Gilgamesheposet, based on the English translation from the chalkboard. It was an academic and cultural breakthrough. When a new translation into Kurdish was made in exile in the early 2000s, the expectation was great: finally, a work that is deeply rooted in the history of the region would come home to its own language.
But instead of support, the translator of silence met from the Kurdish academy in Hewlêr (Erbil). The project was stopped by absurd procedures and petty decisions. Instead of a scientific expert in literature or ancient history, the text was left to a local poet with no academic competence in the field - who with a single expression could undermine the publication.
The official motive?
"Taha Baqir has already translated it into Arabic - therefore there is no need for Kurdish translation. ”
Such an attitude reveals a deep structural problem: when nations submit to the languages and perspectives of others, they silence their own voice.The Kurds – a people whose geographical home is the home of Gilgamesh – are denied to speak in their own voice about their own cultural heritage
At the same time, universities in Finland, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States have research centers dedicated to Gilgamesh. New academic interpretations and translations are constantly developing.
In Kurdistan, on the other hand, where the epic was born, a Kurdish translation of bureaucracy and loyalty to colonial languages is stopped.
This is not just a cultural-political scandal.
This is an intellectual betrayal.
When a people are prevented from speaking their cultural heritage in their language, then it is not only the literature that is silenced - but also the self-image, history and pride.
Gilgamesh deserves to be spoken in Kurdish - not for the world to understand Kurds better, but for Kurds to own their heritage.
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