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Three schools in Turkey open Kurdish education for
first time
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A teacher at a Kurdish-language kindergarten in
Diyarbakir, displays a Kurdish children’s book.
Photo: Alexander Christie-Miller/thetuqay.com •
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Kurdish language but without
prohibited letters X, Q, W. Classrooms empty in
Turkish Kurdistan
September 15, 2014
DIYARBAKIR-AMED, Turkey's Kurdish
region,— Three schools in Turkey are controversially
opening their doors to Kurdish education for the
first time, as millions of students across the
country return to school Monday.
Education at the three schools in Diyarbakir (Amed
in Kurdish), Gever and Cizre will be entirely in
Kurdish, the mother tongue of the people in the
region.
Turkish authorities have already expressed their
opposition to this initiative by the Democratic
Regions Party and the Kurdish Language Research and
Education Syndicate in Diyarbakir.
Education authorities in the region have threatened
to prosecute the schools, considering the move
illegal.
But Refat Roni, from the language syndicate, said
that the schools are going ahead with the plan,
despite the opposition.
"We will not compromise on our right to education
and the government should support this move," he
said.
Leaders of the Democratic Regions Party and
activists have also called on parents in the region
towww.Ekurd.net
boycott the first week of school and demand
education in Kurdish for their children.
Even though the Kurdish letters of "X, Q, W" are in the Latin
alphabet and are being used in lots of languages,
the use of these letters in Kurdish names is being
inhibited in Turkey with a law legislated in 1928.
Some legal regulations have been carried out within
the scope of "Democratization package" by the AKP
ruling, but these letters are still inhibited. The
Kurdish signboards of Party of Democratic Regions (DBP)
are also being investigated continuously.
Turkey is home to more than
22.5 million
Kurds, but they do not have the right to study in
their language.
Fighting for education in the mother tongue is high
on the agenda of Kurdish political parties and their
parliamentarians in Ankara.
Turkish Police unable to
enter Kurdish language primary school
Turkish police attempted to enter the Dibistana
Seretayî a Ferzad Kemangar (school of Dibistana
Seretayî a Ferzad Kemangar), which is one of the 3
schools starting education in Kurdish language on
Monday, before the opening. The parents of students
attending the school in the Bağlar district of
Diyarbakir and local people reacted to the attempt
of the police and only officials of the national
education directorate were allowed to make an
investigation.
The Turkish police arrived in front of the school
with many armoured vehicles and water cannon at
around 09:30, entering the garden of the school.
Friction between the police and the parents of the
students and people around the school broke out. The
attempts of the police to arrest people who
prevented them entering the school increased the
tension.
The police were unable to make arrests on account of
the intervention of the people and they withdrew
from the garden of the school. After the police
withdrew from the school, 2 officials of the
national education directorate of the Bağlar
district entered the school in order to make an
inspection in the classes. While the inspections at
the school are continuing, the police around the
school and the parents and the people in the school
garden with representatives of Kurdi-Der and the
education union Eğitim Sen are continuing to wait.
Classrooms empty in Turkish
Kurdistan
Schools in Turkey's Kurdistan are empty as the
2014-2015 school year begins. Kurdish children who
want to be educated in their mother tongue will
boycott the schools during this week.
The one-week school boycott initiated under the
leadership of the KCK language and training
committee, TZP-Kurdi, KURDİ DER, Mala Piştgiriyê ya
Zimanê Kurdî (MAPER), Education Union, Human Rights
Association, KESK, DTK, DBP and HDP started today.
Classrooms in schools were empty in many cities of
North Kurdistan, especially in the cities of Amed,
Hakkari, Şırnak, Van and Mardin.
In the districts of Bağlar and Yenişehir in Amed,
children ran to playgrounds rather than schools.
In the Şemdinli and Gever (Yüksekova) districts of
Hakkari, participation in the boycott is reported to
be 100%.
The highest participation in the school boycott is
in Gever and Şemdinli districts of Hakkari this year
just like every year. In Gever almost all the
schools were boycotted. The students didn’t come to
any schools, especially the boarding schools,
primary schools and high schools. While most of the
163 schools in the towns, hamlets and villages were
boycotted, it was observed that only the teachers,
executives of the schools and the children of
soldiers and police are attending school.
Very few students came to school in Hakkari,
where there are over 1,000 students. While few
students came to school for the official opening
ceremony of the school of Şehit Selahattin, some
families were called by the executives of the school
to join the opening ceremony.
60% participation in Van
There was 60% participation in the boycott in Van.
In the Hacıbekir neighbourhood there was 100%
participation. Eğitim-Sen branch representative
Şakir Talay said there had been a strong turnout by
people demanding mother tongue education.
In some schools in Van the classrooms remained
empty. Some teachers combined classes to give the
impression that the participation in the boycott was
low.
The boycott affected the high schools in Nusaybin.
While no students were observed in the Nusaybin
Atatürk High school, the students of the primary
schools especially the students of Bülent Pekdemir,
Fatih, Oğushan, Gazi Paşa, Edip Mungan, Yıldırım
primary schools only came to school in order to take
their books. Muş and its districts and the Suruç
district of Urfa also joined the boycott.
Last month over a dozen graduates from a Kurdish
program here have begun a hunger strike to protest
the lack of appointments for Kurdish language
teachers.
Graduates of Artuklu University’s Kurdology
Institute in Mardin province, in Turkish Kurdistan,
say the Turkish government has not followed through
on its historic pledge to open up jobs for Kurdish
language teachers.
More than 1,000 Kurdish teachers are
waiting to be
assigned to schools in Turkey, where they will be
teaching children in Kurdish. In a major feat for
Kurdish rights, the government — which had banned
Kurdish and other languages for decades — two years
ago legalized Kurdish elective courses in public
schools and Kurdish schooling in private
institutions.
Yet the teachers are still without jobs.
"Unfortunately, the Turkish government's promises of
granting more rights for Kurds are only words. We
are unhappy with that," said Yunus Aslan,www.Ekurd.net
one of the 15 graduates who are carrying out the
hunger strike.
Turkey which still denies the constitutional
existence of Kurds, refuses to recognize its Kurdish
population as a distinct minority. Kurds ask for
more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute
the greatest minority in Turkey. Kurds call for
lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the
way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within
Turkey. A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly
sympathise with PKK rebels.
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Ekurd.net | firatnews.com | rudaw.net | Agencies
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