İstanbul municipality adds Kurdish language support to hotline
The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality has added Kurdish-language support to its ALO 153 Solution Center, which handles residents’ requests and complaints.
The service will be available in Kurmanji, the Kurdish dialect spoken by most Kurds in Turkey.
The call center has already provided services in Turkish, English and Arabic.
The municipality said Kurdish-speaking residents can now complete procedures related to municipal services in their native language through the hotline, which receives tens of thousands of calls each day.
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Kurdish, the second most widely spoken language in Turkey, is largely absent from public services. Kurdish political parties and rights groups have long criticized this exclusion.
Turkey’s e-Nabız digital health system, for example, is available in English, German, French, Arabic and Russian, but not Kurdish. Online criminal record applications can be submitted in 19 languages, also excluding Kurdish.
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The municipality’s move comes as parliament is expected to consider a legal framework for the ongoing Kurdish peace process. (FY/VK)
