As Turkey's students head back to class, many fear escalating violence
Millions of students in Turkey are set to return to school Sept. 28, and their families are deeply concerned that the students will be in danger if clashes worsen between the government and PKK.
Turkey's universities and secondary schools, which went on summer vacation in June, are scheduled to reopen Sept. 28. However, growing violence is raising doubt about whether the 5.5 million university students and close to 10 million secondary school students will be resuming studies.
School originally was scheduled to start Sept. 14. The government delayed the opening for two weeks until after the Eid al-Adha religious holidays. Although government officials said the delay was designed to encourage domestic tourism, it wasn’t difficult to grasp the real reason for the decision: escalating violence.
According to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), in 22 unstable provinces, there are about 600,000 university and 1 million secondary school students.
People familiar with Turkey's modern political history know that students returning to school, especially at universities, can be a significant factor in clashes. With the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), the armed youth wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in urban areas, recruiting 13- and 14-year-olds, this year the mobilization of secondary school students will also play a part in the level of violence.
