Sued by Turkish Workers' Union in the Netherlands (HTIB) in 2004, the court has given its verdict that admits the importance of the right of education in mother tongue, however leaves the final decision to the state.
Lawyers said the court's verdict is not a rejection of their demand, yet they will challenge it by taking the case to the higher court.
Speaking about the verdict at a press conference held in Amsterdam, lawyers Nazmi Turkkol and Fadime Kilic as well as Head of HTIB Mustafa Ayranci said "The verdict is neither positive nor negative. We hope that we will win the case in higher court."
"We did not get a positive result but the judges appreciated the importance of the education in mother tongue, this is a good sign for us", Kilic said.
Meanwhile, Turkkol pointed out that they would take their case to the European Court of Human Rights, if nothing came out from the local court.
-Turkish lessons removed in 2004
In Netherlands, Turkish lessons had been given in elementary schools since 1970s, until the coalition government removed them from syllabus based on economic excuses.
Turkish community has been struggling in order to have the lessons back, by not only filing a lawsuit, but also beginning petition drive.
With 52,000 signatures collected so far, Head of HTIB Ayranci said, "according to the laws, any issue that has this much public support has to be discussed in parliament. 40,000 signature is enough for parliament to discuss an issue and we exceeded this."
