Undergraduate Kurdish teaching in NK draws great interests

[alan131210]

20/07/2012 09:34
 
ERBIL, July 20 (AKnews) - An undergraduate Kurdish program opened in one of Turkey’s universities has become one of the most popular language programs with over 1100 people applying for a 500 seats program, Hurriyet Daily News reported Friday.

Department officials at Mardin Artuklu University also expect that the number of applicants could go even higher by the end of this month.
Departmental officials are looking at expanding the program to accommodate 1000 candidates every year after they obtain approval from the Higher Education Board.

The use of Kurdish language in Turkey was prohibited by law until recent years. The Justice and Development Party government has tried to do reform with regards to the Kurdish issue in the country by giving the Kurds some cultural rights among them the opening of Kurdish language programs and allowing schools to offer Kurdish as an elective course.
Kurds make up about 20 percent of Turkey’s population who mainly populate the southeastern region of the country on the Iraqi border and Iranian borders.