Two More Schools Set On Fire İn Southeast Turkey

Two more village schools were set on fire on Thursday night in the Turkish southeastern province of Siirt. 



This follows the burning down of two schools on Wednesday night in the southeastern province of Hakkari in protest at the closure of schools that had planned to teach some lessons in the Kurdish language. 



The "democratization package", passed by the Turkish parliament last year, legalized teaching minority languages.



However, schools that had planned to provide Kurdish education were "sealed" by authorities, as they had allegedly not received permission from the ministry to open.



The fires in the villages of Doluharman and Tuzkuyu were put out, but not before causing extensive damage, the witnesses said.



"We took out the charred stuff and cleaned out the classrooms so that the school could remain open," Ihsan Tepeci, one of the parents, told the Anadolu Agency.



  "This attack is not on the government, but on us. The attackers had already run away by the time we noticed the fire," said Ramazan Demir, whose three grandchildren are studying at the school in the village of Doluharman.



One of the students, Ugur Cinar, said classes remained open Friday.



A masked group of people took to the streets of Yuksekova district on Wednesday night to protest against the "sealing" of schools that had planned to provide some classes in the Kurdish language - an attempt unrecognized by country's national education authorities so far. 



The group threw stones and fireworks at police vehicles, which were there to provide security, witnesses said.



The demonstrators then reportedly broke down the doors of two secondary schools and threw Molotov cocktails in teachers' rooms and classrooms.



The Turkish government has been making democratic reforms to empower the citizens of its minority groups, including Kurds.  Turkish citizens of Kurdish descent mostly live in the southeastern and eastern Anatolian regions.



A large-scale investigation was launched after the incident. 



www.aa.com.tr/en - Siirt