ALBAWABA - A video was widely shared on social media showing members of the Turkish police removing and tearing down storefront signs which have Arabic words.
Activists and social media users said that the video was taken from Adana city, southern Turkey and shows many Turkish police offices with high stics removing any Arabic words from the storefront signs but keeping the Turkish ones unharmed.
According to a Turkish journalist named Ibrahim Haskoloğlu, Adana Metropolitan Municipality is the one behind the campaign and removing the Arabic words.
He wrote: "Adana Büyükşehir Belediyesi, Arapça tabelaları sökmeye başladı - which means, Adana Metropolitan Municipality started to dismantle the Arabic signs."
The video has gained over 2 million views and thousands of comments from ones who criticized Turkey for removing Arabic signs and others who defended Turkey's decision to preserve its identity by keeping Turkish language.
A person claimed that most of Turks were angered by the increased Arabs in the country especially after the Syrian civil war adding that Arabs have been facing racism comments and actions in Turkey.
On the other hand, a Twitter user posted: "Arabic is language of Islam & Qur’an & origin of the Turkish language is not an original language but it is adapted from several languages."
Another commentator said: "Turks being afraid of the Arabic script while they themselves used the Persian - Arabic script until 95 years ago."
