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Obstacles to Teach Kurdish in Schools of Kirkuk

Dr. Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany
Switzerland

Aug 12, 2004

According to the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) of Iraq, the Kurdish language and Arabic language are the two official languages in Iraq, they should be used without restriction in all official communications and state documents, and in teaching in areas inhabited by Kurds.

Kurdish have been used in teaching in the three Kurdish governorates which were included in the autonomy pact of 1975 ( Arbil, Sulaimani and Duhok), it was not allowed in other parts of Kurdistan which was controlled by the deposed Baath regime, like Kirkuk, Diala and Mosul as part of the evil Arabization campaign in Kurdistan during the rule of Baath regime in Iraq.

After the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein on April 9th 2003, the Kurdish populations have been pressing to introduce teaching in mother language in the newly liberated parts of Kurdistan, although that the fate of these parts regarding joining the federal region of Kurdistan is not settled yet, pending the reversal of Arabization and then organizing a referendum, whereby the population in these areas should decide if they want to rejoin Kurdistan or remain a part of Arab Iraq (a very disturbing concession by the the two main Kurdish parties KDP and PUK, when they show readiness to bargain about such important parts of Kurdistan!).

In Kirkuk there have been attempts to implement the TAl concerning the use of Kurdish in teaching for schools in Kurdish inhabited areas of Kirkuk ( Kirkuk is still a city with a majority of Kurds, followed by Arabs and then a minority of Turkmen and Chaldo-Assyrians), these attempts have been faced by a chauvinist resistance from the Directorate of Education and Teaching in Kirkuk ( Mudireyet Al-Tarbiah), which is headed by a Turkmen loyal to the pro-Turkish chauvinist organization called Turkmen Front, this man is behaving like a tyrant, vehemently rejecting efforts to implement and extend Kurdish schools in Kirkuk, banning the use of Kurdish in his institution, mobbing Kurdish teachers and inspectors and refusing to assist Kurdish students in their efforts to enlist in the few Kurdish schools opened after liberation of Iraq. Of 315 employees in his institution only 15 are Kurds, he is refusing and threatening those using Kurdish in communication, all the signs on the walls are in Arabic, he even hangs the symbol of Turkmen front on the walls of the offices.

The Kurdish members of city council in Kirkuk, the governor( himself a Kurd) and the representatives of Kurdish political parties have failed so far to intervene successfully to stop this racist Turkmen official, who is creating an atmosphere of hatred, racism and discrimination in the institution he is managing, practically implementing Ataturk's principles in this part of Kurdistan and working against the rights of Kurdish pupils and students in Kurdistan to learn in Kurdish in their very homeland.

Such practices can not be tolerated, the Kurdish officials in Kirkuk and Kurdistan regional governments must intervene to stop this malicious Turkmen official and replace him with some body with an open mind to the ethnic and cultural diversity of this dear part of Kurdistan. Kurds should not accept again to be treated as such by the stooges of Turkish regime and remnants of Baath regime, who are trying to consolidate the effects of decades of ethnic cleansing and Arabization in this part of Kurdistan.