Components of the DTK (Democratic Society Congress) issued a press conference in the main Kurdish city Diyarbakır calling for mass participation in the one-week school boycott aimed at voicing Kurdish people's basic demand to be educated in their mother language.

The press conference was attended by executives and members of DTK and BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) as well as mayors of Diyarbakır and Bağlar.

Speaking here, DTK Assembly member Osman Özçelik pointed out that the Kurdish people were giving a democratic struggle against the Turkish state's assimilation policies against Kurds.

The denial of a language means the denial of the people speaking it, Özçelik said and remarked that all peoples should be granted to receive education in their mother tongue.

Özçelik said that enabling Kurdish education should be the first step of making peace with Kurds who -he underlined- have sacrificed their life for their fundamental rights.

DTK Assembly member noted that the boycott would be a warning to the Turkish state and the government to recognize the Kurdish identity, adding that Kurds will never desist from demanding to have education in their mother language.

Speaking after, KESK (Confederation of Public Workers' Unions) Amed Branch Chair Kasım Birtek highlighted that a people would be doomed to die when denied to use their mother language in the public sphere.

Birtek defended that Kurdish should be the second official language at schools and public sphere.

Birtek underlined that the provision of education in Kurdish would not split but unite the country and strengthen the brotherhood of the peoples, reminding that assimilation is a crime against humanity.

Speaking after, BDP Amed provincial co-chair Zübeyde Zümrüt pointed out that mother tongue education is an inalienable right and that all peoples must protect their mother language.

Zümrüt said they would not send their children to Turkish schools unless they are provided with education in Kurdish.

Zümrüt called for mass participation in the march to take place in Amed on 16 September, the first day of the education year, from Koşuyolu Park to Ofis district.