Aysel Işık / JINHA

ŞIRNEX - Botan children, whose streets have been under siege for months, react to the state that burned their homes and streets. They say, "We won't go to school, we want to go to school that give education in Kurdish."

Children those who lost their friends and homes due to ongoing policies of genocide and massacre in Kurdistan, react to the state. Children want their neighborhoods back and say that they don't want to schools which are government organizations. Botan children stated that their cities have been demolished within the scope of the assimilation policies and said, "We don't want to go schools that give education in Turkish." The children want to have education in mother tongue and say, "When we had education in schools that give education in Turkish, we didn't understand anything. Going to schools was like torture for us."

12-year-old Bahoz Katar said, "I don't want a school that gives education in Turkish. My teacher didn't care of me because I spoke Kurdish at school. Why should I speak Turkish at school while my mother tongue is Kurdish? When I return to Şırnak, I won't go to school; they should open schools that give education in Kurdish."

14-year-old Nalin Katar reacts to their streets being demolished by saying, "I left my memories in those streets. The state is burning and demolishing our homes and streets now. The places should be burned is schools where they have forced me to go. I have only one dream and hope; going to a school that gives education in my mother tongue. My teachers left Şırnak just before curfew declared. I didn't feel sad when they left. They gave us education in Turkish and I didn't understand anything from them."

Argeş Katar, meanwhile, said, "The state burned and demolished our homes. But, I didn't feel sad when our school was demolished because I didn't understand anything from Turkish. We speak in Kurdish everywhere; however, we have to speak in Turkish at school."

(sg/gc/gd)