government and the banned Kurdish separatist group, the Kurdish People's Party (PKK).
Tuesday's announcement is the latest in recent reforms introduced by Turkey to ease tensions with the Kurdish minority, who account for about 20% of Turkey's population.
Lessons in the Kurdish language will be granted in schools if enough students asked for them, Erdogan said.
Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO shared the following message for the 2011 International Mother Language Day: “Information and communication technologies can be especially useful in promoting mother languages. We must harness the power of progress to protect diverse visions of the world and to promote all sources of knowledge and forms of expression. These are the threads that weave the tapestry of humanity’s story.”
Turkey is joining other nations that recognize and value the diversity of language. The Alaska Native Language Archive houses documentation of the various Native languages of Alaska and helps to preserve and cultivate this unique heritage for future generations. As the premier repository worldwide for information relating to the Native languages of Alaska, the Archive serves researchers, teachers and students, as well as members of the broader community. The collection includes both published and unpublished materials in or on all of the Alaska Native languages and related languages. The collection has enduring cultural, historic, and intellectual value, particularly for Alaska Native language speakers and their descendants.
In the contiguous United States programs like The Hupa Language, Culture and Education program began in 1963 for the purpose of preserving the Hupa language and culture of the Hoopa Indian Reservation. Hupa, also spelled Hoopa, is a Native American tribe in Northwestern California. At this time, the Hupa oral tradition is a part of the daily life of people living on the reservation. It was possible to visit an elder's home and hear a story handed down from the ancestors, much as it had been for thousands of years previously.
Today, Hupa language elders are bilingual. Some have traveled to other countries, and many have communicated with people from other continents. Today's Hupa language students live in a global community as well. They participate in electronic networking that includes e-mail, the internet, interactive videos and CD's, and extends worldwide.
Rather than decrease the value of the Hupa language, however, the worldwide basis for communication has increased it. For the Hupa language students, study of the Hupa language enlarges their range of communication.
There is interest in the Hupa language by many from outside the community. Bilingual skills enable Hupa speakers to share their language as a way of participating in international discussions.
The Hupa project is one of many for Native Americans who value their native language as do the Kurds, who now have the support of the Turkish government.
Kurdish rights, however, remain a sensitive issue. University-level language courses in Kurdish and other minority languages were introduced in 2009, a move widely welcomed by rights groups but still met with skepticism by some Turkish groups.
The European Union has urged the Turkish government to improve anti-discrimination laws for all minorities in the country and do more to tackle racism. Turkey is to be commended for making this incremental change to validate the Kurdish people and their language.