The Karşıyaka (Izmir) District Police Directorate stopped issuing number plates with the letter combination "KCK" which is the abbreviation for the Union of Kurdistan Communities, the urban structure of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party. The Police Directorate declined according request made by some citizens.
Lawyer Mehmet Korkut from the Izmir Bar Association pointed to the fact that the letter combination previously issued by the Kraşıyaka Police Directorate is the abbreviation of the PKK's urban arm. Hence, he petitioned for blocking the letter combinations from number plates because "they advertise for an illegal organization".
In a written reply sent by e-mail, the Karşıyaka District Police Directorate informed lawyer Korkut that many citizens applied to the Police General Directorate regarding the same issue.
The General Directorate announced their decision not to issue number plates with the letters KCK in the future in order to avoid misunderstandings. People who received an according license plate before could apply for changing it, the directorate declared.
Banned license plates
According to the Traffic Law, license plates with letter combinations such as KEL (bald), LAN (curse), LEN (curse), MAL (silly cow) or NAH (belly) are not being issued at all because of their defamatory nature. Letters referring to the PKK or its imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan like APP or APO are blocked as well. In Diyarbakır (south-eastern Turkey), certain words of Zaza and Kurdish origin are not being given for number plates, e.g. the Kurdish words GA (ox) or GU (faecal) and the Zaza word GI (faecal). (HK/VK)
