PANEL APPROVES BILL FOR CHANGING NAMES OF UNIVERSITY, DISTRICT IN TURKEY

Hurriyet Daily news, Turkey
Oct 24 2013

ANKARA

A Parliamentary Commission has approved the bill to change the names
of a university and a district, the government promised as part of
recently announced democratization package, and the bill is expected
to be passed in Parliament’s General Assembly soon.

According to the bill signed by lawmakers from the ruling Justice and
Development Party, (AKP), the name of NevÅ~_ehir University will be
changed to “NevÅ~_ehir Hacı BektaÅ~_-ı Veli University,” and the
name of the Aydınlar district in the Siirt province will be changed
to Tillo, its former name.

During debates at the Parliament’s National Education, Culture and
Youth Commission on Oct. 24, deputies of both the main opposition
Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP) objected to changing the name of Siirt’s Aydınlar district,
but they both favored changing name of NevÅ~_ehir University.

“If we change district’s names with the mentality of ‘people want
it, it is the accepted name,’ we will face further demands soon. For
example, somebody will demand to change the name of Diyarbakır to
Amed [Kurdish], Agrı to Ararat [Armenian], İzmir to Smyrna [Greek]
and Istanbul to Konstantinopolis [Greek]. This won’t get us anywhere,”
CHP lawmaker Nur Serter said.

The bill was submitted to the Parliament Speaker’s Office on Oct. 9
by the AKP’s Parliamentary group, as a sign that the group has
internalized the “democratization package,” a set of reforms.

Hacı BektaÅ~_-ı Veli is known as an esteemed figure for the Alevi
community.

The bill rationalized the change from Aydınlar to Tillo as “It is
a known fact that Siirt’s Aydınlar district is known as ‘Tillo’,”
while adding the name Aydınlar was not accepted in the country and
it played a negative role in the promotion and development of the
district. “By changing the district’s name with the proposal, it is
aimed to give back its old, accepted name,” the bill stated.

Both changes were previously announced by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Sept. 30.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress