Bringing Turkey's Kurdish issue in, this paper argues that cultural contestation is an essential dynamic of ethnic conflicts. The paper analyzes the role of two major components of culture, namely native language and religious identity, in Kurdish conflict in Turkey. Based on field interviews with a variety of Kurdish activists including members of Hizbullah and Koma Civaken Kurdistan, the author depicts how Kurdish Islamic activists and Kurdish leftists engage in a fierce competition to shape Kurdish public opinion on "authentic" Kurdish language as well as "authentic" Kurdish Islam. The contestation over Kurdish language, the "war of words," is increasingly taking center stage in the Kurdish conflict. The Turkish state’s recent official Kurdish TV channel, the Gülen movement’s Dünya TV, Kurdish Islamic activists’ numerous publications challenge the PKK’s long term monopoly over the Kurdish language. The article shows how these rival groups debate over authentic Kurdish since Islamic expressions are highly preferred by the Islamic activists whereas a secular tone is quite visible among Kurdish ethno-nationalists. Moreover, the debate over the language is crucial for all parties that are involved in Kurdish issue since it is directly tied with emerging Kurdish civic sphere in the past decade. These new cultural spheres include dengbêj (traditional Kurdish male singers) performances, newroz (Kurdish new year) celebrations, public commemorations of historical Kurdish figures, protest Friday prayers in city centers, fine art houses, youth reading centers, women’s fraternity clubs, and Kurdish language schools. Thus, the Kurdish language is at the center of the Kurdish identity politics. In the second part, the paper delves into recent contestations over “authentic” Kurdish Islam. Threatened by the pro-Islamic AKP’s electoral success in 2007, the Kurdish leftist ethno-nationalists have started to construct new public image that is peaceful with Islam. A few examples include the organization of Ramadan breaking-fast dinners by the BDP run municipalities, Kurdish imams’ public speeches in the political rallies, protest Friday prayers called as “Civil Friday,” the recitations of Mevlid, i.e. commemoration of the Prophet, in funeral ceremonies of the PKK fighters, and public recognition of women guerillas who wear headscarves. Moreover, the public symbolism of Kurdish Islam is in transformation among Kurdish Islamic activists. Hizbullah, for instance, has ever more developed an ethnic tone in its interpretation of Islam. Kurdish-Islam has become an emerging contested field in which various Kurdish movements mobilized their constituencies.