|
Turkey's Batman University opens Kurdish
language department
31.1.2012 |
|
|
|
File Photo
Batman university
January
31, 2012
VAN, The Kurdish region of Turkey, —
Kurdish language studies have become a third option
for students at Turkey’s Batman University with the
opening of the Department of Kurdish.
The University reported on its website that they
have obtained approval from the Turkish Higher
Education Ministry to open departments for Kurdish
and Syriac language studies.
With the Kurdish and Syriac languages, Batman
University now offers degrees in five languages:
Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Kurdish and Syriac.
There are over 20 million Kurds in Turkey who have
been struggling to keep their native language and
ethnic identity, or have them recognized by the
Turkish state. About 10 years ago speaking the
language was prohibited by law.
Since the accession of the current ruling party, the
Justice and Development Party, restrictions on the
language have been eased, with some private schools
teaching in Kurdish,www.ekurd.net
a state-run TV station which broadcasts in Kurdish
and Kurdish departments opened at a few
universities.
However, the use of the language is still prohibited
by law in the state institutions like the
parliament, courts, government offices, and public
schools.
Kurds in Turkey have been exposed to violence due to
their ethnicity and different language. In December
last year, a Kurdish man was several times stabbed
and then shot dead by a group of Turkish men after
he requested a Kurdish song be sung by a music group
in one of the night clubs of Izmir in western
Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media. The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish alphabet has led
to judicial persecution in 2000 and 2003.
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in Turkey and are denied rights
granted to other minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
Since 1984 the PKK [Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan] took up arms for self-rule in the
mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey
[Turkey-Kurdistan] which has claimed around 45,000
lives of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK
guerrillas.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds'
identity in its constitution and of their language
as a native language along with Turkish in the
country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded an
end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and
constitution against Kurds, ranting them full
political freedoms.
Aknews part of this article reported by Kamal
Harmanci
Copyright ©, respective
author or news agency,
aknew.com | ekurd.net | Agencies
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page
|
®
