Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council co-president Cemil Bayık wrote in his column “Boycott is the most substantial democratic act” on Kurdish daily Azadiya Welat about the one-week school boycott and the demand for mother tongue education.

Bayık said that with the boycott the Kurdish people will reveal that the unlawful and inhuman ban on mother tongue education is the most concrete manifestation of Turkish state's insistence on the cultural genocide of Kurds.

Bayık pointed out that the ban on Kurdish people's mother tongue revealed the insensitivity towards the matters of justice, law and equality. "The state and governments break the law but those who remain silent about the state's policies are also responsible for the bans and restrictions", Bayık underlined.

KCK co-president said the government officials' remarks that "the provision of mother tongue education would split the country" demonstrated their intention to continue the turkification of Kurds forever.

Bayık defended that a change in the state's perspective towards mother tongue debate would also pave the way for a solution to the Kurdish question and the elimination of the objections against the self-governance of Kurds. Bayık also criticized the government for defending that democracy means elections, adding that this mindset of the AKP not only denied democracy but also revelaed the fact that the government understands nothing from democracy.

KCK executive reminded that prohibition of mother tongue education went against democracy, and that it was always chauvinist fascist dictatorships that have tried to ban education in mother language.

Pointing out that the Turkish state is still being ruled by an authoritarian regime, Bayık noted that the Prime Minister engaged in demagoguery by claiming not to be a dictator. Bayık indicated that the ongoing imprisonment of ten thousand Kurdish politicians was the most apparent evidence of the presence of a fascist dictator regime in the country. "Jailing opponent circles is one of the basic features of dictators and the AKP government is doing this in a very obvious way, so much so that never before have so many people been arrested for political reasons, neither during the period of the Armenian Genocide as of 24 April 1915, nor of the 12 September military coup in 1980", Bayık added.

Referring to the debates on mother tongue education, Bayık remarked that the AKP, CHP (Republican People's Party) and the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) bear the same perspective towards the mother tongue issue, and think that "the provision of mother tongue education would split the country".

Bayık noted that the Kurdish children and their families will be taking to the streets in mass and stage protest demos in front of district and provincial education directorates across Turkey during the one-week boycott, and will also demand the removal of oath ceremony in which students have to recite the pledge of allegiance to the Turkish state every morning.

Bayık remarked that the Turkish oath ceremony was one of the major indications of the presence of denial and assimilation in the country.

KCK executive said that this year's boycott was very important for revealing that democracy cannot happen without the provision of mother tongue education for all circles in the country. Bayık noted that next year's boycott could last longer, one month, should the government take no steps to answer this basic demand of Kurds.

"It is time to display a common attitude and to empty the schools", Bayık underlined and called on all Kurdish people and democracy powers in the country to attach the required importance to the boycott in order to defeat the Turkish state's mentality and policy of cultural genocide.