Mesopotamia Language and Culture Research Association (MED DER), held a press conference at the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) building to talk about the the new school year in Turkey.

MED-DER executive Sedat Baran said the new school year was an assimilation process for Kurdish children. Baran added that since the establishment of the Turkish Republic, the state's denial and assimilation language policy towards Kurdish has continued to the present day and Kurdish is used basically only as a spoken language because of the ongoing prohibition.

Emphasizing that the language problem started with the nation-state, Baran said that the Turkish state, which built its foundation on the denial of other peoples, do not recognise other languages other than the official.

Baran said that the language is a living entity and that it continues to develop as long as it is used, and when it is not used, it is condemned to disappear.

Referring to the pedagogical aspect of education in the mother tongue Baran said that leaving the Kurdish language at the school door then lead to preferring Turkish even outside the school, thus encouraging the process of assimilation and in fact the process of self-assimilation.

Baran stated that Kurdish language would revive and develop with education and underlined that MED-DER would not leave the mother tongue in the hands of the Ministry of National Education.

Baran called on all Kurds to reclaim their language and added that the development of language contributes to the cause for national unity.