High Participation Rates to School Boycott

Initiated by TZP-Kurdî Association, Kurdish students across the Kurdish populated areas in Turkey started a week long school boycott to demand their educational rights in mother tongue.

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) also released a statement yesterday, saying that they are supporting the “One Week of School Boycott for Education in Mother Tongue”. 

Various resources confirmed that participation rates in southeastern provinces of Hakkari, Diyarbakır and Batman were high as of this afternoon. It was also reported that activists have launched a petition to Education Ministry, a campaign currently signed by thousands of people and submitted to local education ministry offices. 

Batman

BDP Batman province organization co-chairperson Rahşan Çarboğa said the participation rates were around 80 percent in Batman province, adding that roughly 6,000 signatures were submitted to local education ministry office within a petition initiated by BDP, Eğitim-Sen and Kurdi-Der. Saying that education in Turkey continued in Turkish language despite various ethnical backgrounds, Çarboğa underlined that “single education was a part of the assimilation”. 

“We don’t accept the daily national oath every morning. This is racism.” 

He added that selective Kurdish classes would only be useful to those who didn’t speak Kurdish at all. 

“For those who speak Kurdish,” Çarboğa continued, “it is essential to have education in Kurdish.”

“Kurdish children can only learn how to read and write by the third grade due to their language barrier. For this reason, we are calling for a boycott. People’s sensitivity is very high.” 

Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır Kürdi-Der member and founding president Abdurrahman Bakır, on the other hand, said the boycott appeal was responded in various neighborhoods, institutions. 

“We will support the boycott decision,” he said. 

He continued that even though it was early to tell an exact rate he was hoping around 80 percent. 

“The point is obviously not about the participation rates. Education in mother tongue is a basic human right. 

“I would wish that it didn’t come to this point in the first place and we could get our rights. Maybe this time, parents won’t send their children to school for a week, but next year for a month. There is awareness on education in mother tongue and it is trending.

“Even the discussion of a people’s education right in mother tongue is unjust. It is an insult. It is a shame. We are subjected to these discussion unwillingly.”

Hakkari

According to Yüksekova Haber, boycott participation rates turned out to be high in Yüksekova, Şemdinli and Çukurca districts and their villages. It is further on claimed that schooling in downtown Hakkari is around less than 100 - compared to 75,000 registered students this year in primary and secondary education institutions. 

It is also said that around 15,000 signatures were submitted to local education ministry offices within the campaign “One Week of School Boycott for Education in Mother Tongue”. 

Bayık: Democratic protest

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) also released a statement yesterday, saying that they were supporting the boycott and urging the AKP government to opt out a fundamental right from the negotiation table. 

In his article “Boycott is most valuable democratic protest” published in Azadiya Welat newspaper,  KCK Executive Council Co-Chairperson Cemil Bayık said that a mentality change in the education in mother tongue issue would facilitate Turkey’s resolution of Kurdish problem. 

“It is time to show a popular attitude and fill out classrooms. No matter their political orientation, Kurdish people must paralyze the educational system to make education in mother tongue possible,” he said. (BK/YY/BM)

* Click here to read Cemil Bayık's statement in Turkish. 

* Click here to read the original article in Turkish.