Trustee Osman Doğramacı of Van's Gürpınar district had the 'Welcome' signboard, with Kurdish, English and Turkish inscription "Hoş geldin, Bi xêr hatin and Welcome" on it, removed and replaced it with a signboard captioned in Turkish and Arabic.
The state-appointed trustee Osman Doğramacı to Van's Gürpınar district who already caused much anger with his acts, had this time a go at Kurdish inscriptions.
The trustee, who has literally banned the use of the Kurdish language in the district, had a signboard removed at the entrance of the district which read "You are welcome" (Hûn bi xêr hatin) in the Kurdish language in addition to Kurdish and Turkish. The signboard was replaced with another one with the Arabic inscription "Şehri-Ab" meaning 'Town of Happiness' and Turkish inscription "Goodbye".
Co-chair of the People's Democracy Party (HDP) Gürpınar district branch, Handan Karakoyun criticized this most recent act of the trustee who -she said- is now targeting Kurdish signboards after conducting a “nationalization operation” against the names of the streets.
Karakoyun recalled that the affected signboard had been prepared by the DBP-held Municipality in 2015 in three languages and added: "The state's intolerance towards the Kurdish language and nationalistic mentality against everything that is different, is omnipresent. We condemn this monist mindset and intolerance once again."
