World press on Kurdish problem (June 13, 2012)

Hurriyet published an article by Mustafa Akyol entitled 'At last: Kurdish classes in Turkish schools.' 

"It was only thirty years ago when uttering the very word “Kurdish” was a felony in Turkey: Şerafettin Elçi, a left wing politician, was sentenced to a prison term in 1982 simply for declaring, “There are Kurds in Turkey, and I am a Kurd as well.” The military junta of the time regarded this statement as “separatist propaganda,” the article reads.

"Those insane days of Turkey are luckily gone, and now Kurds, the largest non-Turkish ethnic group in the country, can publicly be proud of their identity, thanks to various reforms of the past two decades. And just yesterday, a new step was taken when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkey’s public schools would be offering classes to teach the Kurdish language," Akyol says.

Kurdish classes in Turkish schools will be another step towards democratic and free Turkey, the author concludes.