The main police station in Diyarbakır (Amed), a city at the heart of Turkey’s Kurdish-majority region, has made headlines for its decision to replace the letters DEM (for Diyarbakır Security Directorate) in its building logo, citing potential confusion with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (also abbreviated to DEM) Party, with the letters EGM (for Security General Directorate). The move is viewed as emblematic of what some call the Turkish state’s “allergy” to Kurdish identity and political expression, reflecting the ongoing tensions that underpin the Kurdish question in the country.
This seemingly minor alteration of the building logo has ignited a debate on the extent of Turkey’s uneasy relationship with its Kurdish population, in a historical context of suppressed cultural, linguistic and political rights. The swift action to avoid any association with Kurdish political symbolism, even in such mundane matters as an acronym, highlights the deep-seated sensitivities and the lengths to which state apparatuses will go to maintain a clear distance from Kurdish political activism.
Observers have pointed out the irony and the possibly overzealous caution in the police directorate’s decision. When pressed, police officials claimed that similar measures would have been taken even if the acronym had been the same as that of a non-Kurdish political entity.
