Kalkan: Sending forces to Kobani, halting Kurdish education incompatible with democracy

Duran Kalkan, a member of Leader Abdullah Ocalan’s Academy of Social Sciences, criticized the deployment of military forces from Aleppo toward Kobani, calling it a provocation that is incompatible with the local will. He called for respecting local will, rejected the suspension of Kurdish-language education, and stressed that the insistence of children and young people in Rojava on learning in their mother tongue is a legitimate democratic demand.

22 September, 2026 14:33

NEWSDESK

During a special program on Medya Haber TV, Duran Kalkan, a member of Leader Abdullah Ocalan’s Academy of Social Sciences, assessed the situation in Rojava.

Kalkan described the developments in Rojava as strange, asking, “How can a fighter be abducted and killed? The protest by the people of Kobani and Rojava was a democratic and natural protest, and the crime should have been investigated,” according to the Firat News Agency.

Regarding the deployment of forces from Aleppo to Kobani, Kalkan said, “Then the situation escalated and military forces were sent from Aleppo toward Kobani, which constituted a serious provocation. I remember Sipan Hazni and the martyrs of Kobani and condemn this provocation. The Kurds of Rojava cannot be intimidated through such methods.”

He continued in the same context, “Kobani is capable of resolving its own problems, so why send military forces? It appears that the local will is not accepted, and if that is the case, Kurdish will is not accepted either. This is not a democratic approach.”

On Kurdish-language education, Kalkan said, “This becomes even clearer with the ban on Kurdish education. Over 12 or 13 years, an education system was built from primary school through university, thousands of teachers were trained, and a generation emerged that received education in its mother tongue. Now it is being said that Kurdish education must stop and that schools should become Arabic. What does this have to do with democracy, rights, and the law?”

Kalkan described depriving the Kurdish people of education in their mother tongue as “a rejection of the local will.”

He stressed that the insistence of Kurdish children and young people in Rojava on receiving education in their mother tongue is “a legitimate democratic demand and must continue. The education system that has developed over the past years must also be respected, as different peoples received education in their own languages and lived according to their cultures.”

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