TURKISH PRESS REVIEW on DEC. 9

Tuesday’s newspapers cover the death of three Turkish soldiers near the Syrian border as well as the Turkish president’s remarks on teaching the Ottoman language

TURKISH PRESS REVIEW on DEC.  9

The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Tuesday’s HABER TURK leads with the deaths of three Turkish soldiers overnight in Sanliurfa province on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Later news reports have claimed that one soldier killed two of his colleagues before turning his weapon on himself.

Turkish dailies also covered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks on the Ottoman language at the ‘5th Religious Council,’ in the capital, Ankara.

MILLIYET ran with the headline “Ottoman language will be taught,” quoting Erdogan. According to the newspaper, Erdogan said: “Whether they want it or not, [the] Ottoman language will be learned and taught in this country.”

The modern-day Turkish language is a revised and standardized version of the tongue used during the Ottoman Empire period. It used the Arabic alphabet with Turkish grammar but was changed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk after the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.

Erdogan’s remarks came after Turkey’s national Education Council decided over the weekend that Ottoman-language classes would be compulsory for religious high schools and elective for other high schools.

AKSAM also reported on the same story, quoting Erdogan as saying: “There are those who don’t want the Ottoman language to be learned and taught. This is a very big danger.”

Turkish newspapers also covered the ongoing “solution process” between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

The front page of Tuesday’s STAR reads “New format in solution process,” a reference to a meeting between Turkey’s deputy prime minister Yalcin Akdogan and a committee from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party.

The newspaper reported that the committee will discuss the new “solution format” with imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and other top cadres.

The Turkish government’s solution process was launched last year and aims to secure an end to the decades-long fight with the PKK, a conflict which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.

Turkey, the EU and the U.S. list the PKK as a terrorist organization.

 

Güncelleme Tarihi: 09 Aralık 2014, 13:11
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