The provincial and district branches of BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) Istanbul organization issued joint press conferences in 16 districts to demand the removal of the obstacles to mother-tongue education.

The press statements, read in both Turkish and Kurdish, called attention to the importance of mother languages as an essential means of communication needed to be protected by states.

Remarking that the failure to leave a mother tongue to the next generations meant the extinction of a culture, the statements said that the ruling government and main opposition parties in Turkey however objected to education in Kurdish language on the grounds that it will lead to a separation in the country.

Commenting the ban on mother-tongue education as a shame, the statements underlined the fact that receiving education in one's mother language was a global right for all peoples in the world.

BDP organizations also criticized the Turkish national pledge Kurdish children are forced to take at schools every morning by promising to sacrifice their existence to Turkish existence.

BDP evaluated this obligation as a racist and fascist practice that need to be abolished as soon as possible.