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| Milad Balisini |
Milad Balisini says that in the past, Turkish was taught as an elective course in some universities, but this practice was later discontinued. In his view, the current situation is different. "If they stop it now, the sound of it will be heard quickly," he believes.
Recently, the court of Ahar in East Azerbaijan issued an acquittal for 22 activists who had been tried in connection with an event held in Ahar city on the 2014 World Mother Language Day in February.
Milad Balisini suggests that the court's decision may be related to the increasing and more widespread demand for the teaching of Turkish language.
The student activist sees the teaching of Turkish language and literature at universities in Tabriz, Urmia, and Maragheh as a result of the expansion of these demands.
According to Balisini, in addition to the Turkish language and literature department that has been established at Tabriz University, Turkish is also taught as a 2-credit elective course at Urmia and Maragheh universities.
"I was present during the protests that emerged after the 'Fitilə' program in Urmia and Maragheh universities. The students' demand during these protests was for our language to be taught. So, it was the students' demands that brought this issue to the forefront," added the student from Maragheh University.
"A new era has started, but when talking about this new era, it is the result of these demands and protests. The government did not grant this willingly," Milad Balisini says, highlighting how the current situation differs from the past.
According to him, "In the past, Turkish was taught as an elective course at some universities, but later it was discontinued. Now, [the situation] is different. For example, there was a Turkish language course at Maragheh University in the last semester. However, the authorities were somewhat indifferent to the issue this semester. The students strongly protested, and the authorities saw that they couldn't discontinue the course... In the past, there was no strong protest, so they discontinued it. Before, it took much longer for the issue to be raised. But now, with the power of social media, the voice of these events is heard much faster."
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Milad Balisini: Türk dilinin davamlı tədrisi səsləndirdiyimiz tələblərin nəticəsidir