Officials from Turkey’s General Directorate of Highways (KGM) have allegedly defaced Kurdish-language traffic signs in the eastern province of Batman, the Artı Gerçek news website reported on Wednesday, citing the Mezopotamya news agency.
The incident, which took place late Tuesday night, is said to have involved police accompanying KGM workers as they reportedly vandalized the signs.
The development followed a recent controversy where unidentified people had defaced Kurdish-language traffic signs in Turkey’s eastern provinces, in what appears to be a racially motivated attack on the minority language.
In Van on Friday, unknown individuals painted over Kurdish pedestrian crossing warnings, which originally read “Pêşî Peya (Pedestrians First),” replacing them with the nationalist slogan “Turkey is for Turks and will remain Turkish.”
Meanwhile, a 16-year-old boy claimed that he was responsible for the vandalism in Diyarbakır, that he had consulted with both a lawyer and a contact in the counterterrorism police before vandalizing the signs and that they assured him he would face minimal repercussions.
The Turkish state has in the past severely restricted the use of the Kurdish language and strictly denied it official recognition, including at the local and provincial levels, despite the fact that it is the language of the country’s largest minority.
The visibility of Kurdish on TV and in the print media was only made possible in the early 2000s thanks to significant progress made in the country’s bid to become a member of the EU.
Yet, the drift towards nationalism and the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the last decade has led to an increase in anti-Kurdish racist attacks.
