Thousands Demand the Right to Education in Their Mother Tongue Across Kurdish Cities

On the first day of the new school year, hundreds of people gathered in Diyarbakır, Antep, Batman, Bitlis and Nusaybin to demand the right to education in their mother tongue, insisting that Kurdish cannot be confined to an elective course.

Speaking at the action in Diyarbakır organised by MED-DER, board member Şükran Yakut said that Kurdish children are being denied the right to education in their mother tongue, and called for Kurdish to be granted a status and to be taught from kindergarten through university and enshrined in the constitution.

In Antep, Abdurrahman Yalın of the Kurdish Language Protection and Development Association said that while other mother tongues can be learned through elective courses, Kurdish itself must become the language of education from nursery to university.

In Batman, ARİ-DER co-chair Renas Yıldırım said that a child taught in their own language understands and interprets concepts rather than merely memorising them, while a child educated in a foreign language suffers deep psychological and mental fractures. (BirGün)