Opened with a flourish, Turkey's Kurdish-language schools fold

BATMAN, TURKEY


For years, Kurdish language instructor Aydin Unesi had to teach clandestinely throughout this city in Turkey's southeast region, home to the majority of the country's 14 million Kurds. But on April 1, 2004, he found himself presiding over the much-heralded opening of the first official private Kurdish language school here.

"We felt this was the moment, after 80 years of being prohibited, for this language to be permitted," Mr. Unesi says.
The euphoria did not last long. Although the school had a capacity of 480 students for each of its 10-week sessions, it enrolled only a fraction of that number. In early August, it closed with little fanfare, along with seven other Kurdish courses in Istanbul and southeast Turkey. [Editor's note: The original version misstated when the school closed.]Read More