QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish government, and its Syrian ally, the opposition Syrian Interim Government, have implemented a policy of Turkification in the Kurdish city of Afrin in northwest Syria since 2018, and the Kurdish language in Afrin schools “ranks fourth” in terms of dedicated weekly hours of education, after Arabic, Turkish, and English, said Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ).
This was coupled with the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Syrian Arabs into Afrin, which some observers have called a policy of “ethnic engineering”. Today, around two-thirds of Afrin residents are Syrian IDPs. In some sub-districts the rate is as high as 84%, a new report by the STJ read.
The formerly Kurdish-majority region of Afrin has been under the Turkish occupation since March 2018 following the so-called “Olive Branch” military operation launched by the Turkish forces and the armed opposition factions, known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), to push away the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) under the pretext of protecting “Turkish national security.”
The operation caused the displacement of about 300.000 of the original inhabitants of the Kurds of Afrin who have been taking shelter in 42 villages and five camps in Aleppo northern countryside, locally known as Shahba region, since then.
Before 2011, the Afrin region, up to 95% Kurdish at the time, was subjected to the Syrian government’s Arab-language curriculum. Between 2012 and 2018, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) established its own Kurdish-language schooling. According to the report, by 2015, Kurds and Arabs were receiving mother-tongue education under the AANES.
Especially in Afrin, the AANES faced difficulties hiring Kurdish language teachers, as well as printing textbooks. Some locals also complained that the curriculum had gaps and was overly ideological. Nevertheless, the curriculum was the first established by Kurds for Kurds.
After Turkey’s 2018 invasion of Afrin, the number of Kurdish children in schools dropped significantly. Hundreds of thousands of indigenous residents escaped the onslaught; Turkish forces took possession of many school buildings for military purposes. The number of schools plummeted from 324 to 204. Whereas 95% of school-going children were Kurds before the invasion, that percentage now dropped to 30.
The STJ report argues that the Turkish government, and its Syrian ally, the Syrian Interim Government (SIG), implemented a policy of Turkification. This was coupled with the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Syrian Arabs into Afrin, which some observers have called a policy of “ethnic engineering”. Today, around two-thirds of Afrin residents are Syrian IDPs. In some sub-districts the rate is as high as 84%.
STJ said that Kurdish in Afrin schools “ranks fourth” in terms of dedicated weekly hours of education, after Arabic, Turkish, and English. School children receive only two hours of Kurdish education every week; in some sub-districts it has been abolished entirely. According to the STJ, the subject is elective and non-credited. Afrin’s schools are also short of professional Kurdish teachers as a result of war and intimidation.
The education authority of the Syrian Interim Government (the political wing of the SNA), is directly linked to the education committee in the Turkish province of Hatay. Schools in Afrin observe Turkish holidays and are largely bound to Turkey’s provisions on education. “All instructions come from Turkey directly,” says one local quoted by STJ.
Turkey also controls the textbooks used by Afrin school children. Many feature themes of “Neo-Ottomanism and Pan-Turkism,” while also highlighting sharia and religious education. Notably, though, “the new curricula were an amended version of the [government’s] curricula.”
Afrin’s Kurdish youth complain that the ‘new’ education is “reminiscent of decades of discrimination” under the government in Damascus. Many say they feel racially discriminated against by their Arab peers and even their teachers. STJ concludes that this is not a byproduct, but an active policy of the Turkish-imposed education.
“I do not feel like I belong, and I am unsure what this homeland signifies to me as it does not respect my language,” one Kurdish student in Afrin tells STJ, “curricula are part of the political system, and these curricula do not mention the historical presence of Kurds in Syria, urging people to disassociate themselves from the place and revoke affiliation with it.”