Serbaz Fariq Ahmed
Recently, a video circulated on social media recorded in a classroom in the Kurdistan Region, apparently filmed by a teacher. In it, students speak about their dreams for the future. Like all children, they expressed hopes for growth, education, and dignity. Yet tragically, in the reality created by the ruling parties, those dreams have been buried — replaced by the normalization of violence and militarization.
Most of the children in that classroom stated their wish to become fighters or members of the partisan militias of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). This represents one of the most alarming threats to the future of Kurdish society: a generation shaped to believe that their only path to survival and power is through weapons.
Militarization as Social Programming
The two ruling parties have deliberately fostered this culture. For decades, they have advanced the idea that armed struggle is the only route to dignity. They have presented the possession of weapons as the sole marker of strength and capacity. Over time, they have systematically transformed children’s imagination: every name, every military unit, every commander is glorified, so that the young aspire to join the ranks of armed groups rather than envision futures in education, science, or civic life.
The outcome is that, from an early age, Kurdish children absorb the message that partisan militancy is a profession — the only secure livelihood. Through schools, songs, ceremonies, and propaganda, weapons are celebrated as symbols of heroism, while social media and Kurdish television channels have become stages for displaying arms and the culture of militancy.
A Manufactured Cycle of Violence
In a society where injustice dominates, young people perceive violence as the only means to confront oppression. This is the legacy imposed by a political order that has survived through authoritarianism, corruption, and suppression of dissent. As long as children and youth continue to associate their aspirations with becoming party-affiliated gunmen, the two ruling families will maintain their grip on power, ensuring that their successors inherit the same political system.
The Responsibility of Families
The government has no program to counter this destructive trend; indeed, it is the very architect of this narrative. Thus, the responsibility lies with families.
Parents must cultivate critical thinking in their children and emphasize that weapons and militancy are not solutions to life’s problems.
Children should be distanced from the spectacle of military and political news, as well as games and media that normalize weapons.
Instead, they should be encouraged to participate in group-based social and sports activities, to read, to explore creativity, and to understand themselves as vital, conscious members of society.
Only through these measures can the younger generation be steered away from the destructive path of militarization, and toward building a just, peaceful, and democratic future for Kurdistan.
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