Kurdish Town of Cizre Becomes Bilingual

The southeast Cizre municipality, controlled by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), has replaced the signboards in the mayorality to bear Kurdish and Turkish text while the government is planning to incorporate the town into a province for imposing tighter security .measures and stronger control by the central government in Ankara

Deputy Mayor Adem Gölçe stated that in Cizre, Kurdish is being used by 99 percent of the population in daily life. "We will adopt a "bilingual life" approach so that Kurdish, besides daily life, will also be used in public institutions,"  he said. "If scientifically, the definition of language is a means for social communications, then, local administrations should take science and socialization as the basis."

According to the Fırat News Agency, assistant mayor Hanım Onur said: "To those, who call Kurdish, -spoken by Kurds, who have been inhabiting in this land for thousands of years - an 'incomprehensible language,' we say, 'here, now you can easily comprehend it."

On the other hand, BDP Karlıova District Organisation and BDP Ağrı Provincial Organisation have launched a petition campaign for official recognition of a "bilingual life."

BDP co-president  Selahattin Demirtaş has recently announced that they will commence a bilingual life without waiting for a legal arrangement.

The government has reacted against this announcement. Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Şahin stated that this serves as a reason to close the party down. However, after meeting with BDP officials, he stepped back. (EÜ)