Police have once again attacked the Dibistana Seretayî a Ferzad Kemangar, Kurdish language school in Bağlar district of Amed, which was sealed and closed soon after opening on Monday, and was once again opened by the people on Tuesday.

After being deployed around the school, police units entered the schoolyard late yesterday, upon which children, their parents and elected representatives acted as human shield, calling for the retreat of security forces who however attacked the staff and pupils with gas, high pressurised water cannon and batons.

Elders and children were severely affected from the crackdown by police who forcibly entered the school and sealed the door late in the evening, leading up to clashes with local people who insisted on their right to have education in mother tongue, one of the basic demands highlighted for the attainment of a democratic resolution to the Kurdish question. The Turkish government has yet to take a step to answer this demand of the Kurdish people since the democratic resolution process was launched between the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and the Turkish state last year.

Turkey has commenced the school year with a boycott by Kurdish students. The racist Turkish education system, that is as old as the Republic, is continuing to be imposed on the Kurds by the AKP government. In opposition to this, Kurdish student initiatives are not going to school for a week in Turkey and Kurdistan. Alongside the boycott, Kurdish students are organising actions, activities and conferences to put the subject of mother tongue education on the agenda.

Three schools started education in Kurdish language on 15 September, the Ferzad Kemangar in Amed, the Bêrîvan in Cizre and the Dayîka Uveyş in Gever (Yüksekova), established jointly by Kurdî-Der, TZP Kurdî and Eğitim Sen. The aim is for the schools opening in these three centres to be pilots and for them to be gradually introduced throughout Kurdistan.

The three schools which commenced educational activity despite the bans of the AKP, which has declared the schools to be illegal, were closed and sealed on the second day after an investigation was launched in accordance with the Turkish penal code articles “opening an unpermitted educational institution” and “committing crime on behalf of an illegal organization”.

The KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency released a statement yesterday responding to the attacks on Kurdish language schools and calling on the Kurdish people to defend and protect their schools and to enhance the boycott protest.

Describing the attack on Kurdish schools as “a practice of massacre against the Kurdish presence” that manifested the insincerity of the AKP government about the resolution of the Kurdish question.