A university in the predominantly Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey has submitted a proposal to the government that, if approved, would make it the first institution in the country to offer master’s degrees in the Kurdish language, reported the Hurriyet Daily News. If the proposal is accepted, the Living Languages Institute established at Mardin Artuklu University in April will host 20 students who will become Turkey’s first “Kurdologists,” or Kurdish culture experts. For most of Turkey’s modern history, the country has engaged in a Turkification policy, which has included the repression of the Kurdish language. Over the past decade, restrictions on Kurdish have been easing, following the end of a 15-year civil war in 1999 between the Turkish military and the PKK Kurdish group.