Turkey to make Kurdish inflight announcements

Turkey will add Kurdish to the languages in which inflight announcements are made, one of the steps among post-election reform plans of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government which surfaced amid criticisms targeting the ruling party over its inaction in regard to expanding fundamental rights and freedoms.

The government will also speed up renaming southeastern towns populated mostly by Kurdish citizens, where name changes from Turkish to Kurdish were seen as necessary. Signs located at town boundaries will also be changed accordingly.

Making inflight announcements in Kurdish and speeding up renaming mostly Kurdish-populated towns were among the steps discussed back during the Kurdish peace talks that collapsed after violence between Turkish security forces and militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) reignited last summer, shattering a fragile peace process and a two-and-a-half year de facto period of non-conflict.

Regarding promises made to the Kurdish citizens of Turkey, the government has classified the planned steps into two parts, those that can be carried out through administrative decisions and those that can be carried out through legal arrangements. Kurdish inflight announcements on airlines will be launched through an administrative decision by releasing the required notification for its implementation. Reforming local governance and education in Kurdish will not be a part of this package.

The government plans to swiftly take action on certain issues that have long been on the agenda by either making legal arrangements or administrative announcements amid an agenda dominated by terrorist attacks and counterterrorism operations.

Future reforms include the opening the Akdamar (Akhtamar...