MÊRDÎN - After Kerboran, the warning sign “Pêşî Peya” was removed in Nisêbîn (Nusaybin) on the grounds that it “violates highway traffic marking standards”. 

 

After Kerboran (Dargeçit) district of Mêrdîn (Mardin), the Kurdish warning signs “Pêşî Peya (Pedestrian First)” was removed from the roads in Nisêbîn (Nusaybin). In a written statement made by Mêrdîn Metropolitan Municipality, it was stated that with the understanding of multilingual municipality, warning signs in Kurdish were started to be written on city roads and traffic signs throughout the city. In response to this, the official letter sent by the governorship and district governorships to the district municipalities stated that, “It has been determined that horizontal markings have been made in violation of the Highways Traffic Marking Standards” and that although the letter requested that the writings be removed until the end of the working hours, paint was poured on the writings late at night and the warning icons “Pêşî Pêya” were removed. 

 

 'CONTINUATION OF THE TRUSTEE MENTALITY'

 

The municipality stated that they continue their work by considering the model of a city where religions and languages live together and cultures blend, and it was stated: “We are in the aim and effort to develop multilingualism. In line with this aim and goal, as part of our multilingual municipalism efforts, we have added Kurdish, our mother language, to the traffic warning signs and icons on the roads in the city, in addition to Turkish, in order to be more effective in terms of warning and to be understood by the majority. This work we have done has gained the great appreciation of our people throughout the city. However, an attack was carried out on these warning signs and icons in Nusaybin and Dargeçit districts by the mentality that cannot digest the rich culture of our city and has been trying to alienate our society from its language and culture with trustee policies for years and making their lives difficult in this context.”

 

The municipality noted that the incidents damaged multilingualism practices that reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of the society and emphasized that they will continue to protect the culturs.