US embassy cable - 04ADANA119

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ADANA 000119 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, TU, ADANA 
SUBJECT: PRIVATE KURDISH LANGUAGE SCHOOLS FIGHT RED TAPE 
 
REF: ANKARA 1532 
 
 
1.  (U) Summary:  Five private Kurdish language instruction 
schools (Van, Batman, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir and Adana) are open 
for business and have registered hundreds of new students for 
the fall, after completing lengthy application procedures and 
meeting strict building code requirements to which few other 
private learning institutions are held.  The schools continue to 
face administrative challenges, including a recent Ministry of 
Education decision prohibiting the use of textbooks and 
dictionaries that instructors had been employing for several 
months.  Despite Turkey's progress in implementing important 
language rights reform measures, activists in Turkey's southeast 
continue to advocate for free elective Kurdish courses in public 
institutions, arguing that "Turkey can't solve its language 
problem with a few schools."  End Summary. 
 
2.  (U) Since the passage of reform laws in 2002 which allowed 
private courses in Kurdish and other non-Turkish languages "used 
by Turkish citizens in their daily lives," five private Kurdish 
language instruction schools have opened their doors and at 
least two others may follow suit later this month.  From 
September 1 through 3, poloff visited schools in Batman, 
Sanliurfa and Diyarbakir to discuss with instructors and 
administrators their experiences with the approval process and 
opening of the schools.  (Note:  In addition to schools in these 
three cities, a course has been operating in Van, and an 
approved school in Adana will begin classes on September 20. 
Press reports indicate that schools have been approved or will 
soon be approved in Istanbul and Kiziltepe, District of Mardin 
Province, as well.  End note.) 
 
Twenty days vs. Two Years 
------------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) Officials at the school in Sanliurfa said they opened 
in March 2004, after an application process lasting more than 
two years.  (Note:  They claimed their formal application was 
made in December 2001, which would have preceded the passage of 
implementing regulations for legislation allowing Kurdish 
instruction.  End note.)  In Batman, the school opened its doors 
in April 2004, twelve months after beginning the application 
process.  School administrators held an opening celebration in 
Diyarbakir in August 2004, after sixteen months of seeking 
approval.  In contrast, said a teacher in Batman, a nearby 
driving school with the same status under the Ministry of 
Education completed the process in just twenty days.  "There is 
a reason for this," he said.  "It is natural that there is 
awkwardness as this is the first time.  Ministry officials were 
afraid, and we all paid the price," he added.  The Batman school 
reportedly had visits from at least ten different government 
agencies, ranging from municipal health and fire officials to 
Public Prosecutor officials checking inventories, before being 
given the green light. 
 
Every centimeter counts 
----------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU) Administrators from all three schools report being 
subjected to building code requirements during the approval 
process to which few other institutions are held.  In 
Diyarbakir, for example, three proposed classrooms were deemed 
unfit for use because only 15 percent of the classroom area was 
covered by windows as opposed to 20 percent.  The result is that 
the school will use nine rather than 12 of its rooms for 
instruction.  (Note:  This was reportedly due to students' need 
to be exposed to sunlight for health reasons; at the same time 
schools are authorized to give night classes.  End note.)  In 
Batman, a doorframe was determined to be five centimeters too 
narrow and had to be widened, with an extension added to the 
door so it would close properly.  One observer pointed out that 
the Sanliurfa school is just about the only building in town 
with a fire escape, and it is only a two-story building. 
Throughout the application process, the school buildings had to 
be open and accessible to inspectors.  Since most are housed in 
rented properties, this resulted in significant costs before any 
income was gained through student fees.  Private individuals 
reportedly covered these and other start-up costs for the 
schools. 
 
What is advanced ability? 
------------------------- 
 
5.  (SBU) Each of the schools was required to submit the names 
of at least one third of its teachers at the time of 
application.  In most cases, this amounted to just one name. 
The Batman school currently has three teachers (two permanent at 
30 hour per week, and one contract at eight hours per week) and 
Sanliurfa has two teachers.  The Diyarbakir school has been 
authorized to employ four teachers, but has not completed its 
hiring process yet.  An official at the Sanliurfa school 
characterized the process of getting teachers certified as 
problematic.  He said that the prerequisites set by the Ministry 
for potential teachers were:  graduation from a teacher training 
program, two years experience, and "advanced ability."   As for 
advanced ability, though, he said the Ministry did not issue 
clear standards.  Contacts in Diyarbakir agreed, saying "we just 
had to certify we could teach Kurdish."  If the Ministry is 
requiring certifications regarding ability, they argue, there 
should be a specific university faculty created, as well as 
texts, to prepare and test such ability. 
 
6.  (SBU)  The Ministry did not approve several candidates put 
forward for contract positions by the school in Sanliurfa, 
because the individuals reportedly worked too many hours in 
other teaching jobs.  The principal in Diyarbakir claimed that 
their school's first nominee for Director was a thirty-year 
teaching veteran, but he was not approved because he had been 
demoted once in his career.  (Note:  Despite these complaints 
about getting teachers approved, it is interesting that our 
contact in Batman was approved despite the fact that, as he told 
us, he had given six unauthorized classes in the past and had 
been "exiled to Yozgat" at one point in his career.  End note.) 
 
Facts and figures 
----------------- 
 
7.  (SBU)  At all three locations, one course of study consists 
of 180 hours of classroom instruction and costs 100 million 
Turkish Lira (TL).  While only one level of course curriculum 
has been authorized by the Ministry of Education, in practice 
each of the schools appears to be performing informal testing of 
registrants to determine students' level of ability and grouping 
them in classes accordingly.  Class hours vary from school to 
school, but each has weekend and evening classes in addition to 
hours during the week.  To date classes have been in Kurmanji, 
which is the most widely spoken form of Kurdish in Turkey. 
 
8.  (SBU)  In Diyarbakir there are currently 207 students 
enrolled for the school's first term, set to begin September 14. 
 According to the school's officials, potential students must 
have completed at least four years of elementary school, 
regardless of their age.  They said they had received some 40 to 
50 individuals when registration opened who had wanted to apply 
since they had "waited a lifetime to learn their language in 
school," but they were turned away because they had not studied 
a sufficient amount of time in Turkish public schools.  In 
contrast to earlier reports that students had to be at least 16 
years old, Diyarbakir school contacts said that with parental 
permission, and fulfilling other requirements regarding public 
schooling, students as young as 11 could register. 
 
9.  (SBU)  In Sanliurfa, the school started out last spring with 
33 students.  Contacts at the school claim they purposely 
limited the number for their first term as they worked out how 
the school would function.  During their summer term they had 58 
students in two classes, with an average age somewhere between 
30 and 35.  Of these, 12 students were under the age of 16.  The 
capacity of the Sanliurfa school is 80 students.  In Batman, 79 
students attended classes during the school's first term. 
Forty-two of the students were university graduates, 20 were 
high school graduates and 17 had finished just elementary 
school.  Twenty-six of those students were women, and the large 
majority of students were adults.  For the summer course in 
Batman, 60 students registered, but only 50 or so attended. 
 
The next important battle:  Textbooks 
------------------------------------- 
 
10.  (SBU) During their first two terms, the schools in 
Sanliurfa and Batman had been using a variety of texts and 
materials in support of their instruction.  The Sanliurfa school 
reportedly submitted a list of these texts for approval to the 
Ministry as early as January 2004.  In July, however, the 
Ministry of Education issued a notice that six or seven of the 
texts, in their current forms, were "not appropriate as 
education tools."  (Note:  The Diyarbakir school had not 
received this official notification as of September 3, but 
expected it would receive the same news soon.  End note.)  The 
Ministry report states that the texts contain "ideological 
aspects per the attached report," and are therefore not suitable 
in the classroom.  Neither the Batman nor the Sanliurfa schools, 
however, report having received the "attached report" referred 
to in the Ministry notice. 
 
11.  (SBU) In one dictionary, for example, there is reference to 
"Kurdistan" and the "Kurdish people," explained contacts in 
Sanliurfa.  In another instance, a text states that "[Kurdish] 
people have been subject to assimilation and therefore an 
overwhelming majority has forgotten the language."  In its 
notice prohibiting the texts, the Ministry of Education has not 
suggested others that would be suitable, though it does allow 
that the texts can be used if the offending passages are 
removed.  However this becomes a copyright issue, argue school 
officials.  They cannot simply remove pages of books that were 
published by other companies. 
 
12.  (SBU) Administrators of the schools are communicating among 
themselves and with the Istanbul Cultural Institute, the 
publisher of at least one of the books in question, about next 
steps regarding the texts.  The principal of the Diyarbakir 
school stated that he also found the texts inadequate, but for 
pedagogical reasons (i.e. he did not find the "offensive" 
passages to be derogatory to the state).   His school has formed 
an experts committee (comprising two Turkish language teachers, 
two English teachers, and two other classroom teachers) to 
discuss the problem of texts, in general.   In the meantime, 
until new materials are developed, it is unclear how and if the 
Ministry will enforce its prohibition of the existing texts.  An 
official in Batman implied that he will keep using them: "We 
think they'll change their mentality," he said; "they have to." 
 
Bring the Inspectors, Not Police 
-------------------------------- 
 
13.  (SBU) In addition to the flap over course materials, the 
Diyarbakir school is also facing problems due to two signs they 
have hung at the school for what they claim are "promotional" 
purposes.  Government officials have charged that two signs at 
the school must be removed because their colors are those of the 
flag used by the PKK/Kongra Gel terrorist group.  According to 
school officials, some 25 policemen came to the school on August 
20 and stayed for three to four hours, insisting that the signs 
be removed.  The school's administration held its ground, 
stating that the people "liked those colors," and that if there 
were a problem, they expected that the Ministry of Education 
would send inspectors to give official notice of the need to 
remove the signs.  The signs were still present as of September 
3. 
 
14.  (SBU) Comment:  Each of the schools is housed in attractive 
facilities, none more impressive than the brightly painted seven 
story building in Diyarbakir, which also houses the Kurdish Pen 
organization and the Kurdish Institute.  Busts and official 
portraits of Ataturk look out over Kurdish language wall 
decorations, and vocabulary flash cards mark doors, chairs and 
windows in Turkish and Kurdish.  Clearly change has come to the 
Southeast.  Nevertheless, the red tape facing administrators of 
these private Kurdish language instruction centers is ponderous, 
arbitrary, and deliberate.  School officials also argue that the 
"hassles" and occasional police presence deter students from 
registering, claiming that students will be labeled as 
separatists.  (Note:  Government officials assert that the 
numbers of students to date simply indicate low interest.  End 
note.) 
 
15.  (SBU) Comment, cont'd:  Moreover, school officials were 
bothered by inquiries focusing on facts and figures, arguing 
that discussing details about the schools doesn't get at the 
real issue.  "Turkey can't solve its language problem with a few 
schools," they say.  They argue that Kurds in Turkey pay taxes, 
send their sons to the army, and fulfill other requirements of 
good citizenry.  In return, they assert, the state offers no 
resources to fund this "inadequate" answer to demands for 
language rights.  While the pioneers in Kurdish language 
instruction in Turkey are busy opening private schools for the 
moment, their struggle for free elective Kurdish courses in 
public institutions in Turkey will continue. 
 
 
 
ALLISON