Living languages institute set to be opened

A Cabinet decision to open the Institute of Living Languages at Mardin’s Artuklu University became official Tuesday.

The motion, which was published in the Official Gazette, enables official academic work in Kurdish for the first time.

The university’s rector welcomed the decision with bittersweet joy. “The decision is not in accordance with the requests of Mardin Artuklu Univesity,” said Professor Serdar Bedii Omay, according to the Anatolia news agency.

The university applied to the Higher Education Board, or YÖK, to open both a Kurdish language and literature program and a “Kurdology” institute. However, the university’s application was not approved. Instead, the Cabinet moved on Oct. 12 to open a Living Languages Institute at the university.

Omay said the university learned the faculty would be called the Living Languages Institute so that other local languages could also be included in the program. Syriac, Farsi and Arabic will also be languages offered by the faculty, daily Radikal reported.

The daily said the institute plans to begin classes by February 2010 with 30 master’s and PhD students. No undergraduate students can study at the institute because institutes in Turkey are for graduate students only.

The move to open Kurdish language programs in universities is a result of the government’s initiative to solve the Kurdish issue.

Kurdish language studies are also conductedoutside universities in private courses.