Call for end to ban on Turkish at schools in Germany

The Turkish Union in Berlin-Brandenburg (TBB), a nongovernmental organization representing the Turkish community in Germany's Berlin, has called on the new state administration to lift a ban on speaking languages other than German during school breaks.

The ban, in force for years in Berlin and some other German cities, aims for better integration of students of foreign origin to Germany, according to its proponents.

Nevertheless, the TBB claims it is a rights violation. Speaking to German media, Safter Çınar, a senior official at the TBB, said the ban constituted "an intervention to freedom of students in their leisure time."