Turkey shuts down Kurdish language institute in Istanbul

Turkey's Interior Ministry has shut down the Kurdish Institute of Istanbul which the founders say has been serving the Kurdish language and culture for a quarter century. A co-founder, Ibrahim Gurbuz, says that he and seven other intellectuals founded the place in 1992 to serve the language, teach it to new students and publish literature. Now he considers the closure as a ban on the language itself and urges the Turkish government to reverse the act.

Some students from inside Turkey who have taken Kurdish language courses at the institute also condemn the act and say that it was a place that taught them the Kurdish language and connected them with their own people and culture.