Water Bills Issued in English but not in Kurdish

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek put forward that facing the "bilingual life" proposal made by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), signs in both languages, Turkish and Kurdish, can be put up at the market stalls, whereas a municipality is not allowed to issue their water bills in Kurdish.

On the other hand, Turkey has been meeting the needs of the mixed population in southern Turkey for a long time by providing bills as well as sign boards and other services in English/Turkish or German/Turkish. When the English population in Didim (southern Aegean region) rose to almost 10,000 people in 2005, the municipality started to issue water bills in English.

Çiçek talked to the nation-wide Sabah daily about the discussions initiated by the BDP and DTK's suggestion of a "bilingual life" project. Çiçek said, "Also taking into consideration that elections will be held soon, the political extensions of a terroristic organization were asked to bring a number of sensitive subjects to the agenda. This way, the discussion on bilingualism was started". (EÜ/EÖ/VK)