Turkey teaches Kurds Turkish with 'wrestling, joking': Minister

“All right, we are very unsuccessful in [teaching] English [as a second language in schools]. But there is a foreign language education area in which the Turkish education system is very successful. We teach Turkish to all Kurdish children very adequately,” Avcı told reporters, referring to the Turkish language as a part of the foreign language education in Turkey.

“You can test this by looking at the [Kurdish problem focused Peoples’ Democratic Party] HDP deputies, as they [speak Turkish] very fluently. We teach Turkish very well. How do we teach it? We teach it because we do not try to teach it,” he added. 

“We do not try to teach them Turkish grammar forcefully. They learn Turkish in the school, in the playtime, while wrestling or joking with each other. This is how a foreign language is learned,” said Avcı. 

Meanwhile, HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said Avcı did not wrestle enough in school, as the education minister could not speak Turkish as good as himself, speaking on NTV news channel on May 13 in response to a question over Avcı’s remarks.

Turkish is the official language of the state and education system while several languages such as English, French, Arabic or Kurdish are taught as elective courses if more than 10 students apply for them in secondary schools.