Heritageization of Kurdish oral traditions

Heritageization of Kurdish Oral Traditions encompasses a range of practices that focus on caring for Kurdish language and culture. Kurdish oral tradition consists of a variety of forms such as songs, stories, or proverbs that have been performed in different dialects of Kurdish language: Kurmanji, Badini, Sorani, Zazaki, and Gurani. Since the early twentieth century, heritageization of oral tradition became incorporated into the Kurdish nation-building process as an important component of Kurdish identity. After the fall of the Ottoman empire (1922-1923), the Kurdish homeland-Kurdistan-became part of the four states, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria which persecuted and minoritized Kurdish language and cultural heritage. Therefore, the Kurdish heritageization of oral traditions became inseparable from the resistance toward the state policies. In countries such as Turkey and Iran, it is still part of the struggle for Kurdish rights. The recent changes in Iraq and Syria allowed the Kurds to construct their cultural policy in more independent manner, but their initiatives remain susceptible to regional and global crises. The heritageization includes preservation of the traditional performances through print, record, and digital forms of documentation and focuses on language revitalization, education, and popularization of Kurdish oral traditions. The process entails building heritage bridges between Kurdish regions in different countries and the modern uses of oral heritage in literature, art, and cinema.