It has emerged that the Turkish parliament has dismissed a bill proposing Kurdish as a language of education, citing conflicts with the provision in Turkey’s constitution of Turkish as the state language.

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, Deputy Group Chair of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, submitted the bill on 15 February. The proposal sought constitutional protection for mother tongue education and the inclusion of Kurdish as a language of instruction.

The office of the speaker of parliament has rejected the proposal, declaring it unconstitutional. Officials stated, “The proposal contradicts the constitutional provision that Turkey is an indivisible entity, with Turkish as its language.” They added, “A draft proposal that clearly violates constitutional provisions cannot be drawn up by the Law and Decisions Support Bureau.”