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Kurds not giving up on education in mother tongue

The Kurdish political movement opened three private schools in Turkey to teach in Kurdish, and has no intention of closing them.
Ferhat Savun aged 11, works on his homework in his home in town of  Cizre in Sirnak province, near the border with Syria March 23, 2013. Turkey's fledgling peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group is all over the headlines. After three decades of war, 40,000 deaths and a devastating impact on the local economy, everybody seems ready for peace. Pro-Kurdish politicians are focused on boosting minority rights and stronger local government for the Kurds, who make up about 20 percent o

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."

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