"What is the reason behind the removal of bilingual signs in Kurdish and Turkish, and replacing them with unilingual signs? Who gave the instruction to remove Kurdish signs?," wrote Adem Geveri, the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP)'s deputy to Van province, on the party’s website.
Pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), which is now HDP, governed the city before November 1, 2016 when their elected co-mayors of Diyarbakir Gulten Kisanak and Firat Anli were arrested on October 25, 2016 for terror charges.
At the time city officials had added Kurdish language to almost all road signs and other public signs in the city. Some were then removed by Atilla Cumali, the trustee metropolitan mayor of Diyarbakir, who assumed his position five days after the co-chairs were arrested after being installed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) government.
Rudaw’s local correspondent, Mashallah Dakak, confirmed that the Kurdish language has been removed from the signs on Diplomatic Road that leads to the city's airport.
This bilingual sign was replaced with a Turkish-only sign on the main road to the airport on Amed. Photo: Rudaw TV
Locals have protested the changes, wanting Cumali to return the Kurdish signs.
Sheikho is a Kurdish citizen from Diyarbakir. He said that the Kurdish signs represented Kurds and their removal is not acceptable.
"It represents all Kurds. We do not accept this,” he told Rudaw.
Mohammed is another Kurdish citizen of the city. He feels Turkey now will target anyone with a Kurdish name.
"If it is said that there are two roosters in Yemen, they are Kurmanj and their name is in Kurmanji, they will go and search for them to know why they are Kurmanj," he said, using another term for Kurds.
Bilingual road signs are still in place on the city’s 75 Meter Road.
According to a statement by the city's trustees, the removal of Kurdish wording is only to widen the strategic road.
Mehmed Serif Camci, co-chair of HDP's office in Diyarbakir has doubts about the reason.
"This is a clear oppression. They do not tolerate a Kurdish text. How can you tolerate 20 million Kurds who live in Turkey? How can you resolve this issue?” he said, referring to the Kurdish question.
Geveri of the HDP has asked the interior minister whether the order came from Erdogan, or if “Cumali Atilla has received any such instruction?"
Turkish state has taken similar measures like banning the words “Kurd” and “Kurdistan” from parliament since the peace process stalled with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in July 2015. Kurdish political leaders have been jailed and dismissed from parliament. In several instances, the state installed trustees to administer cities that had been run by elected HDP members.
Last month a reported change in the name of the "Mosque of Kurds" angered Kurds when it was replaced by "Mosque of Turks” in Kilis.
