Kurds not giving up on education in mother tongue

The Kurdish political movement has no intention of giving up on the three private schools they opened to teach exclusively in Kurdish. The opening of the schools last week led to a cat-and-mouse game between the schools’ administrators and the local governors — the latter closing the schools, the former reopening them several times. Clashes between the schools' supporters and the police erupted, and nearly 100 people were taken into custody.

Dilek Adsan, co-leader of the teachers union Egitim Sen, one of the founders of the schools, said in an interview with Al-Monitor: "We think it is a birthright to be educated in one's mother tongue. We won’t give up."

The schools opened in the biggest city in the predominantly Kurdish southeast, Diyarbakir, and in the smaller towns of Cizre, on the Syrian border, and Yuksekova, close to the Iranian border. Along with Egitim Sen, the initiative was backed by Kurdish language institute Kurdi Der, and the local municipalities provided the premises. Money to open the schools was raised in a combined effort, with contributions from parents and local businesses.

Al-Monitor attended the opening of the Ferzat Kemanger school in Diyarbakir and learned that for ideological reasons the school has no principal. "We are a collective, a people’s initiative," said teacher Abdurrahman Bakir, a retired state teacher who started working at the Kurdish school as a volunteer.