UFA, Bashkortostan -- Some 2,000 demonstrators gathered in Ufa, the capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, to protest Moscow’s policy of removing elements of ethnically specific education from schools, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.
The demonstrators came from across Bashkortostan on April 18 to protest Moscow's plans to remove so-called regional and ethnic classes from schools in as of September 1.
The activists say the decision to ban classes on the history, geography, and languages of the republics may lead to a complete loss of ethnic and linguistic identity.
The demonstrators adopted a resolution stating that the new restrictions abuse the right of Russia's ethnic minorities to obtain an education in their own languages.
People from Bashkortostan's Ukrainian, Chuvash, Daghestani, and Kazakh cultural centers took part in the protest.
Tatar organizations in Tatarstan are also protesting the proposed changes to their schools' curricula.