Trustee appointed to Batman, road signs in Kurdish removed from province

* Photo: Mezopotamya Agency (MA)

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Before a trustee was appointed to Batman Municipality in eastern Turkey, there were bilingual "pedestrians first" signs on 49 pedestrian crossings where there were neither traffic police nor traffic lights.

The traffic icons which read "önce yaya" and "pêşî peya" in Turkish and Kurdish respectively have been renewed by the Municipality as they have worn out. However, the new icons are now only in Turkish.

As reported by the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), while it indicated that renewal works will be undertaken in 350 spots across the province until November, the trustee-appointed municipality has not used the icons in Kurdish. The icons in front of Batman Municipality, Acetler Crossroad, Turgut Özal Boulevard and several other places are now only in Turkish.

Dismissed co-mayors slam the incident

Removed from office by the Ministry of Interior and replaced by a trustee, dismissed Batman Co-Mayors Songül Korkmaz and Mehmet Demir have denounced the incident on their social media accounts.

"Yet another enmity towards Kurdish by the trustee of Batman," Demir has said and added, "The words 'Pêşî Peya' that we wrote on the road for the safety of people in Batman, where a vast majority speak Kurdish, have been erased by the trustee and written in Turkish."

Speaking to the MA, Korkmaz has also said that 90 percent of Batman's population speak Kurdish and that was why they decided that the road signs should be written in both Turkish and Kurdish.

Indicating that they worked to bring forward multilingual municipal work in the province, Korkmaz has briefly stated the following:

"We tried to bring forward a multilingual municipal work to protect people's life safety. We took a joint decision by the Directorate of Transportation and worked on this. The signs have worn out in time, they have been renewed, but, this time, they have been written only in Turkish.

"Here, we have once again seen the enmity of the government and that of the trustees as its system towards Kurdish."

Concluding her remarks, dismissed Co-Mayor Korkmaz has said, "The enemy law needs to be abandoned and the icons should be written in Kurdish immediately. This people expresses itself in Kurdish, it needs to be respected for that reason." (EMK/SD)