Downgrading of two Kurdish provinces in Turkey fails
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – On Friday, the Turkish parliament scrapped the draft law proposed to downgrade the administrative status of two mainly Kurdish southeastern provinces in Turkey.
Turkey’s state-run press agency Anadolu Agency (AA) reported that the omnibus bill that would downgrade Hakkari and Sirnak to districts and rename them as Colemerik and Nuh, respectively, had been thrown away.
Sirnak was granted provincial status in 1990, along with many other small districts in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
Sirnak Province is on Turkey's border with both Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Hakkari has been a province since 1936, and when the bill of downgrading was passed to the Parliament, locals were unhappy at the potential loss of provincial status.
Two weeks ago, the Turkish government presented a draft bill to the Parliament to promote Cizire and Yuksekova as new provinces and downgrade Sirnak and Hakkari (known as Colemerg in Kurdish) to districts.
The bill was met with backlash and angered the Kurdish people whose provinces were involved in the potential downgrade.
Following the government’s law draft, the people of both Kurdish provinces, Hakkari and Sirnak, protested against the proposal, calling for a withdrawal of the plan.
Meanwhile, in Cizire and Yuksekova, which were going to be promoted, provincial status was good news for locals.
Four months ago, Turkish authorities declared a curfew in Sirnak followed by violent operations that led to mass destructions in both cities.
For nearly two months, Sirnak witnessed unceasing shelling after clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters, along with their new youth formations YPS and HPG.
Turkey’s southeast has been scorched by violence since a ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed last July.
Moreover, round-the-clock curfews were instituted in parts of the southeast.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany