The traffic warning signs in Kurdish ‘Pêşî Peya/Pedestrian First’ and ‘Hêdî/Slow’, which were erased upon an instruction by the Turkish Ministry of Interior to the governor's offices in Kurdish cities, were rewritten by the residents of Batman.

Batman Municipality's warning signs written on pedestrian crossings to prevent possible accidents were erased yesterday by the General Directorate of Highways in the presence of the police. The erased signs were rewritten by the municipality in the morning. The erasure of the writings continued in the city today. The teams of the Directorate of Highways, accompanied by the police, hastily erased the Kurdish traffic warning sign in front of the municipality and left the scene.

Batman Municipality Co-Mayor Gülistan Sönük, DEM Party Batman MP Zeynep Oduncu, municipal council members, DBP, DEM Party Batman provincial organisations and many people went to the place where the writing was erased. The people gathered at the scene in a short time, sang the song ‘Zimanê Kurdi’ [Kurdish Language] and frequently chanted the slogan ‘Zimanê me rûmeta me ye’ [Our language is our honor]. The people rewrote the Kurdish traffic warning signs in Kurdish, accompanied by songs and slogans.

Co-mayor Gülistan Sönük stated that they are going through a time when attacks on Kurdish culture and language have intensified and said: “First they attacked our dance, then they attacked Kurdish writings. They don't even provide a legal justification for this. They couldn't sleep at night! The Kurdish writing disturbed their sleep, so they came and erased it. Since we consider human life above everything else, we called for cooperation with the Highways yesterday to solve the problems related to the place where 4 people lost their lives. Their response to us was an attack on the Kurdish language at night. The loss of people's lives due to the measures not taken did not disturb their sleep, but Kurdish writings did. But let them know well that we will never step back from our language, culture and identity.”

Mustafa Mesut Tekik, co-chair of DEM Party Batman Provincial Organisation, stated that the governor's attack on the Kurdish language instead of performing his primary duties is an indication of his hostility towards the Kurdish language and culture and said: “Just two days ago, 4 of our citizens lost their lives because the necessary precautions were not taken. The Directorate of Highways, which did not take any precautions, came and erased the inscription instead.”