Bilingual road signs in Turkey’s Kurdish villages 26.11.2009

DIYARBAKIR, Kurdish Southeastern region of Turkey, — The first bilingual road signs in Turkish and Kurdish have been erected in Turkey’s southeast as part of efforts by Ankara to win over its restive minority, an AFP reporter observed Thursday.

The direction signs feature the names in both languages of villages around Diyarbakir, the largest city of the Kurdish-majority region which has been the scene of a bloody insurgency since 1984.

The initiative was spearheaded by the Diyarbakir municipality, which is held by the Democratic Society Party, Turkey’s main Kurdish political movement.

Bilingual signs have been placed for 82 villages, but signs for Diyarbakir city remained only in Turkish, a municipality official told AFP. Read more