Holding a news conference after assuming his new post, Akman was asked how he would react if he were to receive a petition in Kurdish. “If you ask me, I think people should use the language they know or the language they prefer in petitions demanding their rights because one’s search for rights is a different issue. It is like the existence of Kurdish-speaking police officers on the police hotline, 155. If a person knowing only Kurdish gives them a call, it is important to have someone there to respond to him or her.”
Nevertheless, Akman said people should now write their petitions in Turkish because there are currently no translators on the committee.
During the 23rd term of Parliament, 598 women and 3,275 men presented requests to Parliament’s Petition Committee, while nongovernmental organizations sent 139 petitions, for a total of 4,012 petitions. One of the most interesting was one from a citizen who asked each and every member of Parliament to give TL100 to him/her.
