AKP candidate for Istanbul says 'Kurdistan' while his government bans it
Since then, the AKP and Erdogan, being the president at the forefront for the campaign to recapture Istanbul, have adopted a milder language toward the Kurds.
It remains to be seen if Istanbul’s Kurdish votes will swing to his side amid their recent history with the AKP, but for now, the reaction from the Kurds has not been as welcoming as Yildirim might have hoped.
“The word Kurdistan remains banned at the Parliament. Doesn’t Binali know this? Then he says ‘Kurdistan’ in Diyarbakir. Be a little consistent,” HDP’s Diyarbakir lawmaker Imam Tascier wrote on Twitter.
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In 2017, the AKP-dominated Turkish Parliament banned the word Kurdistan along with some other terms such as “genocide” about the early 20th century Ottomans’ systematic extermination and displacement of the Armenian people.
In the following months, the then MP and former Mayor of Diyarbakir Osman Baydemir was banished for two legislative sessions from the Turkish Parliament and fined 12,000 Liras (then approx. 3,100 USD) for uttering “Kurdistan.”
Turkish judicial authorities have also repeatedly banned books for having Kurdistan in their title. In widening the scope of the crackdown, the Turkish government successfully lobbied Google late last year to take down a custom-made map of the Greater Kurdistan.
“Binali Yildirim has used the word ‘Kurdistan.’ However, two years ago, [authorities] launched an investigation against me for using the word ‘Kurdistan.’ Let’s see if Mr. Binali, too, will be investigated,” Nurcan Baysal, a local journalist writing for the international media, tweeted.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Kurdistan 24’s Diyarbakir bureau contributed to this report)