Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Presidency has released a statement calling on the Kurdish people to boycott schools for the first week of the education year, which will start on 16 September 16, in order to display an attitude against the Turkish state's “assimilation and cultural genocide” policy against the Kurdish language.

KCK commented the compulsory education in Turkish and the Turkish national oath that students are forced to take at schools every morning as the major factor of the cultural genocide and the manifestation of the daily cruelty imposed on Kurds in Kurdistan.

KCK pointed out that the policies of the Turkish state since the foundation of the republic have aimed at the destruction of Kurds in a systematic and organized way, particularly with the support of the 1924 constitution. KCK noted that the policies aimed at spreading Turkish nationalism in Kurdistan territory are being followed today as well.

“The bans imposed on the Kurdish culture, the forced migration of nearly ten million Kurds to Turkey and Europe by means of the elimination of the economic and social environment in Kurdistan, the destruction of Kurdistan's demographic structure, and of its nature with the construction of dams have been among the most remarkable consequences of the cultural genocide imposed on the Kurdish territory”, KCK underlined and remarked that more than half of Kurds have forgotten their mother language because of this exploitative policy.

Pointing out that the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) has been giving a fight since its foundation in order to eliminate the policy of cultural genocide, KCK said the Turkish state's turkification policy is still being followed today by the AKP government which -it underlined- put this policy into practice under the cover of so-called progresses, such as “allowing elective Kurdish courses at schools but denying education in mother language”.

KCK added that AKP government's attitude towards the mother tongue issue contradicted their allegations that “we have ended assimilation which is a crime against humanity”.

Remarking that it was important for the Kurdish people to support the one-week school boycott of Kurdish language institutions, KCK said families should not send their children to schools for a week and stage “we want education in mother tongue” protests and marches in front of the provincial directorates of national education offices in each province on the first day of the education year. KCK said the protests should be joined by not only Kurdish families and their children but also by all people of Kurdistan, regardless of their political views.