Diyarbakir, Turkey, November, 2016. Outside the courthouse, supporters wait where HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas has been detained.Depo Photos/ABACA/Press Agenc. All rights reserved. The July 15 coup attempt was a nightmare. Kurds remember
the terrible army coups in Turkey. After the army coups, Kurdish people were
imprisoned, sustained, killed and tortured. Kurds are against army coups. By
night-time on 15 July, 2016, the pro-Kurdish party, HDP (Peoples’ Democratic
Party) had immediately condemned the coup attempt.
Kurds thought that after the coup attempt, there may
be a return to the peace process.
The reasons behind that surmise were:
– The Kurdish movement has not had any links with the
Gulenist movement. The Gulenist movement is a nationalist, Islamic, pan-Turkish
movement. In his speeches, Fethullah Gulen, head of the Gulen movement, has on
multiple occasions expressed his hatred for Kurdish people and has come out
against any peace with the Kurdish people. Kurds have warned the government on
numerous occasions that the Gulen movement could sabotage the peace process.
– Today, we know that the PKK did not launch the war.
Today we know that the PKK is not responsible for the killing of 2 policemen in
Ceylanpınar (this event has been linked to the breakdown of the 2 year long peace
process). The HDP proposed in a parliamentary bill to investigate these
killings. The bill was voted down by the AKP (Justice and Development Party)
and MHP (Nationalist Movement Party). In the aftermath of the coup attempt, the
judges and prosecutors of this event have been arrested for supporting the Gulenist
movement.
Unfortunately, after the coup attempt, the government
did not use their chance to return to the peace process.
Since the coup attempt on July 15, everything has got worse.
Just 5 days after the coup attempt, on July 20, a State of Emergency (OHAL) was
declared. It still continues. The country is governed by decrees with the force
of law (KHK). Government has used the July 15 coup attempt and the Emergency
Rule to stifle all opposition.
Let’s offer just a few numbers to help people grasp the
size of this “witch hunt” in Turkey:
- More
than 100,000 people have been fired from their jobs. Nearly 30,000 of them were
teachers and 4,000 of them academics. - 40,000
people have been detained, 20,000 people were arrested, and investigations have
been opened against 70,000 people. - 1,500
civil society organizations were closed down. 177
media outlets, TVs, newspapers have been closed. More than 150 journalists and
writers were imprisoned.
These numbers grow every day. Thousands of
investigations have been opened against film makers, writers, lawyers, doctors,
academics…
How has the State of Emergency
impacted the Kurdish region?
The war and curfews have continued in the Kurdish region
since the July 2015. Many Kurdish cities have been demolished; millions of
people have become homeless. The State of Emergency was declared on top of this
disaster and everything has got worse.
Let’s look at what happened in the region after the
coup attempt:
- State administrators
were appointed to replace elected mayors in dozens of pro-Kurdish
municipalities.
Kurds have been administering their own municipalities
since 1999 in accordance with EU local governance principles. Kurdish
municipalities have been under constant pressure with frequent inspections by
the central government. Today, elected mayors have been replaced by appointed
state officers.
These appointed people (kayyum) have closed womens’
centers, Kurdish culture and art centers. In Diyarbakır “kayyum” just closed
the Yezidi camp last week. Many of the municipal jurisdictions have been taken under
state control, signalling long term ramifications.
- Almost
all Kurdish media, even the Kurdish children’s channel has been shut down.
Kurds have never had a wide range of media channels in Turkey. Before
July 15, they had some local TV stations, radio stations and a few TV stations
broadcasting from İstanbul and abroad.
Mainstream media has not shown what is happening in Kurdish cities,
because they are controlled by the government. All media channels sympathetic
to Kurdish issues are accused of supporting the PKK.
This is totally ridiculous. Those channels were
actually showing the violence of the state in the region. Now Kurds only depend
on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook, which are also suspended by
the government from time to time.
Today, 10,000 social media users are undergoing
investigation in Turkey, 1,656 social media users have been imprisoned under
charges of “insulting Erdoğan or supportive messages for terror organizations…”.
- Kurdish
civil society organizations were closed down by the government allegedly under
suspicion of supporting terrorist groups.
There are associations that support the families who have
lost their houses during the curfews or families who live under the poverty
line in the Kurdish region. Associations that represent women and children’s
rights, Kurdish linguistic rights, “lost” people, reconciliation, environment, Kurdish
culture and language schools, lawyers’ rights – these have all been closed down
by the government. Even some Kurdish football organizations have been closed.
By closing these civil society organizations, we
understand that the government is trying to harm Kurdish society, to undermine the
social solidarity.
- Thousands
of Kurdish teachers were fired from their jobs in the region.
The government suspended 11,285 teachers who are accused
of having links with Kurdish militants. Nearly 10,000 of the teachers returned to
their jobs after 3 months. 1000 of them were fired outright. There is also an
education problem in the region. Many schools in the region have been transformed
into police stations. Many student dormitories are used by special operations
teams. Worse still, the content of their education has changed. A militarist,
authoritarian, one minded educational system is gaining control.
-
The
death of democratic politics
Hundreds of Kurdish politicians and activists have
been detained. Even the co-presidents of HDP have been detained. 12 Kurdish
parliamentarians, 67 Kurdish mayors are in prison. 3051 party managers are in prison;
more than 10,000 members of HDP have been detained. Kurdish eople are living
under the constant threat of detention. Every morning we regularly check to see
who has been detained today.
With these policies, the government is sending a
message to the Kurdish people. They have closed off all political access to
Kurdish people in this country. Especially for the young generation who
believes that there is no legal way to gain rights for the Kurdish people, these
government policies will inevitably have tragic consequences.
Today, if you go to Kurdish cities, you will see
police barricades in front of the municipal buildings, police stations and
official buildings. You will see tanks, tomas, police, and soldiers with heavy
weapons in the streets. You will see demolished cities and homeless people. You
will see people living in tents in the rural areas of Şırnak and Hakkari. You
will see thousands of teachers, doctors, academics, writers and journalists out
of work. You will see check points everywhere. Inside the prisons, you will see
4-6 people trying to sleep in one bed because of how crowded it is. You will
enter Şınak, Cizre, Nusaybin as if you were passing border control into a
different country.
All of these changes have happened just in one and a half years.
The cultural fabric of Turkey is rapidly breaking
down. The future is uncertain. We do not know what tomorrow will bring. There
is no safety net, there is no turning back! I am afraid we can only be speeding towards
destruction.