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The Senate of Mardin Artuklu University has decided the Institute of Living Languages to be closed and joined the Institute of Social Sciences together with the Institute of Science by 17 to 7 votes.

Author and academic Selim Temo announced the decision on his social media account:

"The Senate of Mardin Artuklu University decided to close the Institute of Living Languages in Turkey (17 affirmative, 7 dissenting votes) and sent it to the YÖK [Council of Higher Education]. The hostility towards Kurdish by the rector who is of "Kurdish origin" and, as Eliaçık calls it, "ISIS-minded" the administration in Kurdish is endless!"

The Senate, which sent the decision to the YÖK, is preparing to take the Institute of living languages into the structure of the Institute of Social Sciences in line with the response it will receive.

The Senate took the decision "within the scope of savings measures," sources from the university told bianet.

The sources stated that for the decision of closure "under savings measures" to be taken, the institute must be dysfunctional, but the Living Languages Institute has been working quite actively since its inception.

After the implementation of the decision, the staff working at the Institute of Living Languages is expected to be transferred to the Institute of Social Sciences.

Rector: Reports don't reflect the truth

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Ağırakça, the rector of Mardin Artuklu University, said, "The reports don't reflect the truth," on his social media account.

"It is a shame that some spread a hearsay story on social media yesterday. There is only the YÖK's decision to convene all the institutes under one roof. Closing the institute is out of the question," he said.

In 2017, six Kurdish academics working in the Kurdish language and Culture Department of the Institute of Living Languages were discharged by a Statutory Decree.

The Institute, which was established in the period called "resolution process" and started education in 2009, opened the graduate departments of Kurdish first, Syriac and Arabic in the following year. (FD/VK)