The Dibistana Seretayî a Ferzad Kemangar, Kurdish language school in Bağlar district of Amed, which was closed soon after opening yesterday, has once again been opened by the people today.

Yet before children sat in the rows on the first day of the new school term, police raided and shut down the school after the public prosecutor of Diyarbakır launched an investigation in the scope of the Turkish penal code articles “opening an unpermitted educational institution” and “committing crime on behalf of an illegal organization”.

The sealing of the doors of the school has however not been able to prevent the provision of the Kurdish courses as Kurdish children whose right to education in mother tongue continues to be violated yet had their lessons in the schoolyard on the second day.

Hundreds of students and parents gathered outside the school, broke the seal and entered the Kurdish language school at noon today.

In a statement here, DBP (Party of Democratic Regions) provincial co-chair Zübeyde Zümrüt said; “We do not recognize your seal. Mother tongue is a right we have attained resisting. We will also be building our schools in the same way.”

Following the re-opening of the school which was also joined by DBP executives, metropolitan and district municipality co-mayors, students started to take lessons inside the school building.

In the meantime, the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Co-Presidency has released a statement 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.

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 yesterday, 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 commenced educational activity despite the bans of the AKP, which has declared the schools to be illegal.

The Dibistana Seretayî a Berîvan-Berivan primary school was also sealed and closed by police yesterday and the Üveyş primary school early today.