STUDENT refugees from the occupied Afrin region joined protests in northern Syria today against plans to stop lessons being taught in the Kurdish language, warning of attempts to eradicate their culture as part of education reforms.

Hundreds took part in the demonstrations in Shahba canton organised by the Afrin Democratic Education Committee in opposition to a demand made by the Kurdish National Council in Syria (Enks) to revert to the pre-2011 system.

This would see the scrapping of the Kurdish education system established in the semi-autonomous region known as Rojava in northern Syria, which is run along democratic lines with lessons taught in the Kurdish mother tongue.