For third day.. Sit in tent in Derik demands Kurdish language education in schools 

For the third consecutive day, residents of the city of Derik in the Jazira region are continuing their sit-in—held in a tent erected by the city's popular initiative in front of Yusuf al-Azma School—to demand constitutional recognition of the Kurdish language and instruction in the mother tongue.

Speaking from the sit-in tent, Narinj Hussein said: "We want our children to study in Kurdish because it is our dream. When we were students, speaking Kurdish was banned in schools, and we faced punishment simply for doing so; that is why we want our children to study in their own language—Kurdish—for our language is our very existence."

She added: "My daughter has been studying in Kurdish since primary school and has now reached the secondary level; how could she possibly study in another language?"

She continued: "We will remain in the sit-in tent until our language is recognized, for it is our mother tongue and our very existence. The education of our children will be limited to the Kurdish language only; we will not send them to schools to study another language, and we will escalate our struggle for our mother tongue.

For her part, Safia Ibrahim said: "We will continue the sit-in until our language is fully recognized. After a long struggle involving revolution and the sacrifice of thousands of martyrs, how could we possibly abandon our language? This is absolutely unacceptable, and we will remain in the tent until all our linguistic rights are recognized."

For her part, Shireen Khalil, a student participating in the sit-in, said: "We are gathered in the sit-in tent to protect our people's rights and secure recognition of their language within a new Syria. We have not yet returned to school, and we will remain in the public squares until the Kurdish language becomes an official language of the country."

Sh-S

ANHA