May 28, 2014

ERZURUM, Turkey’s Kurdish region,— A criminal complaint has been filed against Turkish teacher Mustafa Engin for speaking Kurdish with his students at school.

Mustafa Engin, a class teacher in Binpınar village of Erzurum’s Karaçoban district, was first exiled on the grounds that he learned Kurdish to be able to understand his students, and spoke Kurdish instead of Turkish at school.

The teacher against whom Erzurum Provincial Directorate for National Education filed a criminal complaint was later subjected to a criminal case initiated by the prosecution office that put the complaint of the Directorate in process. The first hearing of the trial will be held in Hınıs district of Erzurum Tuesday.

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Iğdır MP Pervin Buldan has also tabled recently a parliamentary motion asking about the legal process the teeacher has been subjected to.

Speaking to Evrensel daily about what he has been through, teacher Mustafa Engin said thewww.Ekurd.net

District Director of National Education Fatih Aydın, National Education Branch Chief Murat Çiçek and Binpınar Elementary School Director Kemal Akdu threatened him to retract his statement, saying that ‘Should something happen to us, this will give you a headache as well. You cannot get along together here if you don’t retract your statement’.    

        firatnews.com