04 October 2010
The government will make Kurdish courses available in foreign language teaching private centers or in Public Training Centers
Answering journalists' questions, AKP (Justice and Development Part) Vice President Hüseyin Çelik said the government can take steps to favour a solution of the Kurdish problem, which was emphasized by President Abdullah Gül at the TBMM (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) opening. Çelik stated that they don’t lean towards “education in mother tongue” but can take new steps in “mother tongue learning”. Çelik explained the expected step of the government as follows; “When I run ministry, we made regulations for the opening of Kurdish courses. Under the circumstances of that day, they demanded independent Kurdish courses. Their attitude was against combining the course with other foreign language courses. However, economical problems didn’t make that possible as a Kurdish course had no chance to continue economically. This subject is also included in the agenda at the moment, the situation will change. As long as being under MEB control and supervision, it won’t matter within which course it will take place. At his statements in TBMM, Interior Minister also handled the subject. MEB has already been given instruction and must be in the offing.”
During his statements, Çelik remarked that the idea of opening Kurdish courses in public training centers can be argued about. Being reminded about proposals to list Kurdish among elective languages in schools, Çelik replied as follows; “It is arguable if the courses will be given in public training courses or not but education in mother tongue is much troublesome. Then, you will also have problems with finding a common ground at the international level.”
Translation: Berna Ozgencil
ANF / NEWS DESK
ANF NEWS AGENCY
