On July 29, an unidentified group vandalized pedestrian warning signs in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. These signs, which read “Hêdî” (slow) and “Peşî Peya” (pedestrians first), had been added to the walkways under police supervision to accommodate the Kurdish majority in the area.
According to a report by the Mesopotamia Agency (MA), three vehicles—a car, a pickup truck, and a Ranger—arrived near the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality around 3:20 a.m. This area included traffic lights and a pedestrian crossing. A person armed with a gun emerged from the Ranger vehicle and began directing traffic, while two individuals from the pickup truck stood guard. The remaining two used brushes and paint to deface the Kurdish warning signs.
Similar acts of vandalism were reported in the Ofis neighborhood of Yenişehir district and other locations. The defacement was also captured on security cameras.
In the eastern province of Van, an unknown individual painted over the “Pêşî peya” pedestrian crossing sign with the phrase “Turkey is Turkish and will remain Turkish.”
The Diyarbakır and Van metropolitan municipalities had recently added Kurdish translations to traffic signs as part of their “multilingual municipality activities.”
The vandal was later identified as a 16-year-old high school student. In an interview with the online news outlet Shortwave (Kısa Dalga), he revealed that he had consulted with a lawyer and an acquaintance at the counter-terrorism department (TEM) before carrying out the act.
He recounted, “After I shared my plan, the man at TEM advised me to be cautious, even though the punishment might be minor. He warned that the Van Municipality could cause problems if I got caught.” He added, “The police said they understood my nationalist sentiments and supported my actions. They advised me against similar activities in the eastern provinces but promised to assist me as much as possible.”
