Armenian Writing Removed from Tuzluca Province Entrance Signboard

ISTANBUL (Agos) — On the entrance and exit of Tuzluca province, which borders Armenia, Tuzluca Municipality put a sign reading “welcome” and “good bye” in Turkish, English, Kurdish and Armenian on September 2015. Yesterday, fire brigade of the municipality removed the Armenian part. It is claimed that the writing is removed because of the reactions of some Azerbaijani people living in the province.

The Armenian writing on the sign was put by the decision of the municipality in 2015. On October 21, the letters in “good bye” (Ցտեսություն) were damaged by some unidentified person or persons.

Agos daily called Tuzluca Municipality for getting information, but they told us that they don’t want to talk about it.

On the other hand, Tuzluca Municipality co-Mayor Mehmet Gültekin, who is a member Democratic Regions Party (DBP), spoke as the following, when the sign was put: “Tuzluca was an Armenian settlement before the republic period. Here, many regions are referred by their Armenian names. Armenian people had been living here, their past and history is here. As an act of respect, we also used Armenian in the sign.”