WordBulletin

World Bulletin / News Desk 

The Turkish Language Association (TDK) will compile a Kurdish-Turkish dictionary as Kurdish has become an elective language course in schools with the introduction of the new education system, popularly known as 4+4+4.

The dictionary is going to be prepared for the purpose of aiding the students who are taking the Kurdish language course in the schools. A commission has been set up by the TDK consisting of Kurdish language experts and academics which will start working on the dictionary as soon as possible. The experts and academics in the commission will decide on the content of the dictionary.

The TDK, for the first time, is set to compile a dictionary in a language apart from Turkish. The Kurdish-Turkish dictionary is also going to be sold in bookstores for people who are interested in the language.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced in June that Kurdish would be offered as an elective language course in Turkish schools. Erdoğan said that Kurdish would become an elective language course at any school with the minimum number of students to run class. The prime minister also emphasized that, depending on the demand and need, other languages of Turkey might be taught at public and private schools across the country under the new education system.

Erdoğan stated that the introduction of elective Kurdish classes was a result of requests from Kurdish citizens, adding that supporters of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) had already been criticizing and attempting to undermine the process of offering the language as an elective course in schools.