“How Zarok TV is Helping Preserve the Kurdish Language” published in The Amargi.
A small child plays underneath a statue of Mustafa Kemal “Ataturk” (“Father of Turks”), in the predominantly Kurdish city of Mardin (Mêrdîn). Ataturk is seen by many Turks as the father of the modern Turkish nation, and the Kemalist ideology centres the idea of a single Turkish identity, historically carried out by violent means.
Emin Timur, producer at Zarok TV studio in Diyarbakir (Amed), Turkey.
Screens depict a live simultaneous broadcast of cartoon programs in three Kurdish dialects.
An animator at Zarok TV works on an opening animation sequence from one of the channel’s programs.
A YouTube channel plaque adorns the walls of the Zarok TV office, showing they have surpassed 100,000 subscribers on the social media platform. As of February 2026, the channel has more than 218,000 subscribers.
A sign adorns a police station in the city of Diyarbakir (Amed), stating: ‘How happy is the one who says “I am a Turk”. Diyarbakir, the city from which Zarok TV broadcasts, is a predominantly Kurdish city and has remained under occupation and conflict with Turkish authorities for generations.