No interest in Kurdish language course promoted by Van trustee

There was no interest in the ‘show-off’ Kurdish language course promoted by the Van trustee, who has intensified his systematic attacks on Kurdish for years.

Kurdish schools, kindergartens and cultural events opened when the municipality was run by the HDP were abolished by the trustees appointed in 2016 and 2019.

With the appointment of a trustee to the HDP Metropolitan Municipality in the Kurdish city of Van, whose population exceeds 1 million 300 thousand, in 2016, the Perperok Nursery was closed, and Kurdish language activities and studies were cancelled.

The Perpêrok Nursery and Day Care Center, serving in Kurdish, had a 1,200 square meter indoor usage area, a 500 square meter children’s playground, a sand pool, a garden with a poultry house and a parking lot, and an outdoor area. The nursery had a capacity for 90 children and 20 people worked there. Theatre, cinema, music, dance, chess were promoted in the classes and there was an infirmary room and a children’s playground. The nursery had 18 students in each class, aged 0-6.

The nursery opened by the Van Metropolitan Municipality was the largest in the region. The Van trustee abolished the Kurdish name “Perpêrok” and banned Kurdish lessons. The nursery was renamed Nursery and Day kindergarten, and Kurdish lessons were replaced by Turkish lessons.

Kurdish signboards abolished

Signs in Kurdish in the city center of Van and on the main roads became the target of AKP and trustees. The Kurdish writings on the signs at the old safety junction, which is the busiest place in Van, were removed, leaving only Turkish and English. The Kurdish names of many streets, villages and hamlets in Van were removed from the signs.

Kurdish removed from Twitter account

Trustee Mehmet Emin Bilmez has also removed the Kurdish language from the Van Metropolitan Municipality’s official Twitter account. The “Şaredariya Bajara Mezin a Wânê” text on the municipality’s Twitter account was removed, leaving just the Turkish Van Metropolitan Municipality left.

People showed no interest in ‘show-off’ Kurdish course

The people showed no interest in the ‘fake’ Kurdish language course promoted by the Van trustee, who intensified his systematic attacks on Kurdish for years. After the public did not apply, a few people working in the municipality were brought to the classroom to take pictures and continued the ‘show’.