Kurdish no longer banned on banners in Kurdistan North (East Turkey)

Photo by Lesley Gaj
"Cejna We Piroz Be" ('Eid Mubarak' or 'Happy Eid' in Kurmanji- the dialect of Kurdish used in Turkey) was dispayed from the banners attached to every overpass in Diyarbakır last week. Although I have visited Diyarbakır a few times already (and once over Eid), I have never ever seen any language other than Turkish used on any type of public communication. Instead I noticed (over Eid 2006) gates decorated with banners proclaiming how happy "we" all are to be Turkish! A strange proclamation to make in a largely Kurdish city.

I wonder if this means change is coming... Unfortunately this change in the language policy hasn't brought about a decrease in the security and police checks everywhere in the Kurdish region. I know it was Eid, but given the sparse number of cars, there was no reason for people to sit for 4 hours on the bridge between Iraq and Turkey to pass customs.