Interior minister orders reinstating of Kurdish name plate in trustee-appointed municipality

AĞRI

DHA photo

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has ordered the reinstating of a Kurdish name plate in the Diyadin district municipality in the eastern Turkish province of Ağrı, after the plate was removed following Ankara’s removal of Diyadin’s elected mayor, replaced by a trustee.

Mekan Çeviren, the trustee who was appointed to the Diyadin Municipality, removed the Kurdish name plate of the municipality building following his appointment, replacing it with a Turkish version and draping Turkish flags on the municipality building.

Çeviren also shared a picture of the municipality building on his Twitter account, showing it draped with numerous Turkish flags.

Soylu said he had immediately given order to reinstate the Kurdish name plate on the municipality building after news of the removal emerged.

“Kurdish is also our language. Our only problem is with terror. I have given the order and that name plate will be hung once again where it was … I believe there was a misunderstanding in this process” Soylu told reporters in Muş Airport on Sept. 12.

Authorities later hanged the name plate reading “Şaredariya Giyadine” (Diyadin Municipality) written in Kurdish outside the municipality building.

As a part of a recent decree law the under state of emergency, the Interior Ministry appointed trustees to 28 local municipalities across Turkey on Sept. 11 on the grounds that they allegedly provided support to the PKK and the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), which is accused of staging the failed coup attempt of July 15.