“Good News! We’re expanding our ongoing online classes to make them more widely accessible. Anyone who wants to speak and write in Kurdish can enroll,” read an April 5 tweet by the institute’s official website.

By 2 p.m. the next day, April 6, the institute had to close applications due to overwhelming demand, Co-Chair Eyyup Subaşi said.

“We had to stop taking applications but we will be reopening them in the coming days. We’ll have to come up with a formula,” Subaşi said.

So far, the institute will open 27 new classes of about 40 students each for the online courses that will start April 15.

“Each student will join in on one session every week, but we’ll be holding classes every day of the week,” Subaşi noted, adding that some 30 instructors will be teaching.

The institute will resume taking applications after a period, Subaşi added.

Starting April 15, classes will be held each day of the week on the video conference call application Zoom, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Reporter’s code: 50101