A family in the Sason district of Batman province wanted to register the name of its newly-born daughter as “Helqîs”, but the registrar refused to allow the name because it contained the letter ‘Q’, which does not exist in Turkish. The baby’s name was thus registered as ‘Helkız’.

‘You can have a Kurdish name, but with Turkish letters’  

The Aydın family had a baby girl this month and wished to name the child after the Helqis mountain in Sason. However, they were told the letter ‘Q’ was forbidden.

The Aydın family has three other children, whose names are Nefel, Beritan and Siyabend.

‘Q’ is not possible, let’s write ‘K’

Officials at the Directorate of Population told the family that since there was no letter ‘Q’ in the Turkish alphabet the name Helqîz could not be registered. The father, Davut Aydın, said: “I thought of giving this name a long time ago. I had faith in the democratisation package, but it appears the same mentality of prohibition continues. They told me I could have a Kurdish name, but with Turkish letters. We thought the ban on Kurdish had been lifted. We wanted to call our baby Helqîz, not Helkız. Even if her name on the identity card is Helkız we will continue to call her Helqîz.”