Turkey bans writing of university dissertations in Kurdish

Pro-Kurdish demonstrators protest against Turkey's military action in northeastern Syria in Berlin, Germany, October 19, 2019. (REUTERS)
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Updated 31 July 2020
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Turkey bans writing of university dissertations in Kurdish

  • Kurdish language departments previously received thousands of applications from university students who wanted to have their education in Kurdish but numbers have now dropped dramatically

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s Council of Higher Education has banned students studying Kurdish language and literature at Turkish universities from writing their dissertations in Kurdish.

All dissertations at Kurdish language departments will now have to be written in Turkish.

The move is a step back from the government’s previous efforts to provide Kurdish citizens, who make up about a fifth of Turkey’s population, with an opportunity to receive an education in their mother tongue. State schools have been offering Kurdish as an elective language for the past seven years in a country where Turkish is the only constitutionally recognized language.

Since 2013, Kurdish studies were introduced at universities during the fragile and short-lived “Kurdish peace process” that aimed to increase Kurdish cultural and linguistic rights but which ended suddenly in 2015.

Kurdish language departments previously received thousands of applications from university students who wanted to have their education in Kurdish but numbers have now dropped dramatically.

The decision will influence four universities in Turkey that are allowed to open Kurdish language and literature departments: Dicle University in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir, Mardin Artuklu University, Bingol University and Mus University.

“The collapse of the peace process has resulted in such efforts to target Kurdish language whose use has turned into a political leverage and a means of criminalization in Turkey,” Roj Girasun, the head of Diyarbakir-based Rawest Research Center, told Arab News. “However, education in the mother tongue was one of the core campaign topics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2013 and in 2014 when he was reaching out to Kurdish citizens in the southeastern provinces,” he said.

Girasun wrote his undergraduate thesis in the Kurdish language and on the topic of Judaism in the Kurdish oral culture at Mardin Artuklu University. However, he is now obliged to write his master’s thesis in Turkish, which is not his mother tongue.

“As political tensions escalate domestically and regionally among Turks and Kurds, the crackdown on the universities is mounting. The government doesn’t appoint teachers to the Kurdish language departments of the universities, which naturally discourages citizens from applying to those universities due to the lack of qualified academic staff. What we are witnessing is the criminalization of the Kurdish language,” Girasun said.

Esat Sanli, a doctoral candidate at Dicle University, is another student who will be affected by the decision.

“The decision will directly target students willing to write history and culture-focused dissertations. On the other hand, it will also have international repercussions. Any dissertation that is written in Kurdish will be taken as a lack of capacity of the student in linguistic skills,” Sanli told Arab News.

According to Sanli, the decision will also be a disincentive for Kurdish students to continue their academic career in the Kurdish language.

“There was a significant interest in choosing these Kurdish departments simply for the opportunity to write academic dissertations in their mother tongue. But now these universities risk losing their appeal in the eyes of the students,” he said.

A recent study showed that only 18 percent of the 600 young Kurds surveyed — aged between 18 and 30 — could speak, read and write in Kurdish. The categorization of Kurdish language as an “unknown language” by the judicial system is another marginalization of the language, sometimes even criticized by government officials.

Max Hoffman, a Turkey analyst from the Washington-based Center for American Progress, said that the Kurdish language was another front in Turkey’s culture war.

“Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost most of their Kurdish support with the resumption of the PKK conflict and the accompanying harsh government repression. Since July 2015, they have only intensified the crackdown, including removing duly elected mayors from the HDP,” he told Arab News.

According to Hoffman, just as Erdogan drove the Hagia Sophia controversy in the hope that secular Turkey and the West would react — allowing him to pose as the defender of the faithful — he is trying to use Kurdish language and culture as another wedge to force the opposition to either defend Kurdish cultural rights, driving away nationalist voters, or abandon Kurdish cultural rights, driving away Kurdish voters.

“This move should be seen as a sign of political concern about his right-wing, as well as an attempt by the AKP to cause tension in the informal opposition electoral alliance,” he said.

 


Israel airstrikes kill family of 5 in Gaza Strip

Updated 9 sec ago
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Israel airstrikes kill family of 5 in Gaza Strip

  • Hamas said on Monday that talks over some core issues for a ceasefire deal in Gaza have made progress, an official in the Palestinian group said

CAIRO: At least 14 Palestinians, including a family of five people, were killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on Monday in northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.
One strike hit a group of people in the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City, killing at least seven people including two children, the Health Ministry’s emergency service said. Two more people were killed in Jabaliya Al-Balad area in northern Gaza, it said.
Another five people were wounded in the strike, it said.
A third strike hit Salaheddin school, which shelters displaced families in the western part of Gaza City.
The strike killed two parents and their three children, according to the Al-Ahly Hospital which received the casualties.
The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment on the strikes.
Hamas said on Monday that talks over some core issues for a ceasefire deal in Gaza have made progress, an official in the Palestinian group said.
“The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” added the official.
The administration of President Joe Biden sees a possible truce as soon as this week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Bloomberg News on Monday, adding that there were no guarantees that the parties would agree to such a deal.
Sullivan, speaking to Bloomberg in an interview, added that Biden’s administration has been in contact with incoming President Donald Trump’s team and sought a united front on the issue ahead of Washington’s Jan. 20 transition of power.
“The pressure building here toward the end of President Biden’s term has been considerable,” Sullivan said. “It’s there for the taking.”
Biden leaves office next week after Democrats lost the White House in November’s election, handing back the US government to Trump and his fellow Republicans, who will control both chambers of Congress.
Envoys of both Biden and Trump attended weekend talks on the potential deal.
“The question is now: Can we all collectively seize the moment and make this happen,” Sullivan told Bloomberg, adding that Biden had directed him to work closely with the incoming team.

 


Israel army says intercepted projectile launched from Yemen

Updated 13 January 2025
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Israel army says intercepted projectile launched from Yemen

  • Israeli military also intercepted a drone launched from Yemen on Monday

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen on Monday before it crossed into Israeli territory, in the latest in a series of ongoing attacks.
“One projectile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (Israeli air force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
Earlier on Monday the military said it had also intercepted a drone in southern Israel that was launched from Yemen.
Since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out in October 2023, the Iran-backed Houthi militants who control swathes of Yemen have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
In retaliation, Israel has struck Houthi targets several times inside Yemen, including in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa.


Iraqi PM outlines vision for UK relations ahead of official visit

Updated 13 January 2025
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Iraqi PM outlines vision for UK relations ahead of official visit

  • Mohammed Al-Sudani will meet with King Charles, PM Keir Starmer
  • Visit ‘reflects my government’s commitment to strengthening the strategic partnership’

LONDON: Iraq’s prime minister has called for bolstering economic, trade and security ties with the UK ahead of an official visit to the country.

Mohammed Al-Sudani will arrive in London on Jan. 13 and will meet with King Charles, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and senior British officials.

Writing in the Telegraph on Sunday, Al-Sudani said the visit “reflects my government’s commitment to strengthening the strategic partnership between Iraq and the UK.”

He warned that it comes amid “unprecedented and escalating events in the Middle East” that threaten the region and the wider world.

Al-Sudani wrote that regional and international solidarity will ensure that the “free will and aspirations of the Syrian people are respected.”

He praised the UK’s support for Iraq’s fight against Daesh, and said the bilateral relationship had significantly transformed in recent decades.

“Today, as our country achieves greater levels of security and stability, the time has come to transition to a new phase of sustainable economic partnership,” he added.

Al-Sudani will aim to attract British investment in Iraqi energy infrastructure during his visit. It is part of a larger plan to establish Iraq as an international trade hub.

“We will continue to encourage more British investments in oil and gas, as well as in renewable energy projects, recognizing the importance of diversifying energy sources and addressing environmental challenges in the long term,” he wrote.

Al-Sudani highlighted banking reform as another area of potential cooperation with the UK, whose financial institutions and expertise can “improve government services and enhance administrative efficiency.”

He added: “We are determined to channel investments into developing education and training to equip young Iraqis with the skills required to meet the demands of the next phase of development.”

Counterterrorism efforts involving the UK could protect both domestic and regional stability, Al-Sudani said, adding that Iraq could benefit from British military industries.

“My upcoming meetings in London carry a clear message: Iraq is committed to building partnerships based on shared interests and forward-looking vision,” he said.

“We seek a global partner with political and economic weight, and the UK is well-positioned to play this vital role as we embark on a new chapter of growth and reconstruction.”

The Iraqi delegation to the UK includes ministers, MPs, Basra’s governor and representatives from the private sector.


UAE sends 35 trucks in 3 convoys to deliver aid to Gaza

Trucks carrying aid from the UAE crossing into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing (WAM)
Updated 13 January 2025
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UAE sends 35 trucks in 3 convoys to deliver aid to Gaza

  • The latest Emirati delivery of essential supplies includes medical equipment such as dialysis machines and ultrasound devices, plus food and shelter materials
  • The UAE has dispatched 153 humanitarian convoys to Gaza since November 2023, with 2,391 trucks delivering more than 29,274 tonnes of aid

LONDON: Three convoys of trucks carrying aid from the UAE this week crossed into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt.

A total of 35 trucks carried more than 248.9 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including more than 100 tonnes of medical supplies, the Emirates News Agency reported.

The deliveries are part of an ongoing Emirati humanitarian campaign to help the Palestinian people during the war between Israel and Hamas. Since the launch of “Operation Chivalrous Knight 3” in November 2023, the UAE has sent 153 convoys into the Gaza Strip, with a total of 2,391 trucks delivering more than 29,274 tonnes of aid.

The essential supplies delivered by the latest convoys included medical equipment such as dialysis machines, ultrasound devices, resuscitation sets, wheelchairs and respiratory masks, the news agency added. Other items included food, tents and sacks of flour.

Fadel Al-Shamsi, a spokesperson for the Emirati aid operation, said care was taken to maintain the highest standards of safety and quality during the storage and transportation of the medical supplies to Gaza.


Palestinian president meets British FM in Ramallah

Updated 13 January 2025
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Palestinian president meets British FM in Ramallah

  • Mahmoud Abbas briefed David Lammy on Israeli aggression in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

LONDON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Monday at the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in Ramallah.

Abbas discussed with Lammy the need to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2735, which calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the coastal enclave.

He highlighted the UK’s backing for the efforts to gain international recognition of the State of Palestine and its full membership in the UN, as part of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He briefed Lammy on the latest Israeli aggressions in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the WAFA news agency reported.