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PrintHİKMET ERDEN / FERHAT ARSLAN
HABER MERKEZİ (DİHA) - The mayoral candidates of the Democratic Society Party or DTP have been preparing for propaganda and service in Kurdish to show their reaction against restrictions on Kurdish language according to the Law of Political Parties. They are promising to municipal service will be made in Kurdish if they win the election.
DTP's mayoral candidates' election works are ongoing enthusiastically for incoming election on 29th March while the republic's prosecutors have been opening investigations about their propaganda which is made in Kurdish during their election travels. Lately an investigation has been launched by the prosecutor for Van mayoral candidate Bekir Kaya, who had written on the election bus Wan instead of Van on the grounds that to use the letters other than Turkish.
Our voters are demanding from us to serve in their mother tongue. If we use Kurdish language during municipal service, our performances have being blockaded for years. Even though these kinds of negative approach to using Kurdish, we have never given up and will not in the future Zülküf Karatekin said on the issue, who is currently mayor of Kayapınar district of Diyarbakır.
'Administration's two faces have to be uncovered'
"What ever they have done we are going to make propaganda by Kurdish during our election works. This shows us that AKP administration has two faces and practices dirty policy." Karatekin stressed.
Abdullah Demirbaş, former Mayor of Sur, district of Diyarbakır, who had to be resigned from being mayor of Sur in connection with practicing multilingual municipality during his term, , criticized the investigation decisions about candidates' performance in Kurdish by saying: Government has been saying us that I'm the power, I can do whatever I want, but if you act same way this is going to be considered as crime. That is why government launched Kurdish television channel while we are not allowed to speak in Kurdish. We are not going to compromising on this point and keep practicing our mother tongue in everywhere and every condition.
95 percent of population is Kurdish
Etem Şahin, also mayoral candidate from DTP for Suruç, district of Diyarbakır, emphasized that 95 percent of Suruç population's language is Kurdish and 70 percent of municipal service has been practiced in Kurdish while promising to raise the rate of Kurdish service percentage to 95. He said: We are not going to obey these suppressions since millions on the street to defense their mother tongue. Government will not be able to keep us from practicing our language. We'll also publish Kurdish books, novels etc and municipal workers will have capability to serve in Kurdish.
No silent for restriction on Kurdish
"We are going to use our wellknown Kurdish people's name for our street instead of Turkish PM's name when we won the election. We are not going to remain silent against these kinds of restrictions on Kurdish language. We are going to protect our Kurdish identity and culture." said Selim Kurbanoğlu, Yenişehir, Abdurrahman Pişkin, Yaylak, mayoral candidates from DTP.
(gü)