Monday 21 September
Since the Turkish general election in June 2015 the situation facing the population in the Kurdish south east region has gone from bad to worse. An election result that saw the Kurdish based HDP break through the electoral barrier, achieve 13% of the national vote and gain 80 representatives to the parliament, was heralded internationally as a signal that the peace process had been successful and that an opportunity had been created to progress to a lasting peace and possibly change Turkey’s policy towards the struggle against ISIS.
However instead Kurds now see an increase in violence and state repression. Kurdish activists place the blame for this squarely on the governing party the AKP and the Turkish President and AKP leader Erdogan.
President Erdogan campaigned for a vote for the AKP that would have lifted their share of the vote from the over 50% achieved previously, which allowed them to govern as a majority in parliament, to the 60% they need to be able to change the constitution without the support of any other party.
Everyone agrees that the Turkish constitution needs changed but Erdogan’s AKP want to change it to put more power in the hands of the President rather than the Executive and parliament. It was the rise of the HDP, taking votes away from the AKP in Kurdish area in the south east and in Istanbul. It is the view of the Kurds that Erdogan has determined to make sure that those people and the HDP be punished and that the situation on the ground be changed so that people withdraw support from the HDP and return to the AKP as a result of the chaos taking place. This chaos would also allow the state to either disenfranchise areas due to the security situation or to use the chaos as a cover for electoral fraud.
There is much evidence to support this analysis.
Since 2013 the PKK had held to a ceasefire called for by imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. Negotiations took place between senior government figures and Ocalan aided by representatives of the Kurdish people including MPs. Much hope was invested in these discussions and progress was made in taking forward ideas for a democratic peaceful solution.
This culminated in an agreement in February 2015 on 10 principles for peace. Included in the ceremony to launch these principles were senior government representatives, including the Prime Minister, and senior Kurdish leaders.
Within hours of this long hoped for development the optimism that had propelled the process to that point was shattered when the state President, Mr Erdogan, declared that he did not agree with the principles, that he had been unaware of the discussions which had produced them and denied that there had been any negotiations at all. In Turkey, where Erdogan is all powerful in his party and the state, this declaration was not believed. Of course, the argument goes, he knew all about the negotiations.
There then followed a process which resulted in the current situation of violence and repression.
Abdusselam Inceoren, the Human Rights Association representative in south east Turkey states that they warned that the government were preparing for war and not peace long before the election result. He said,
“We send observers to various parts of the region and they report what they see. We saw that whilst the negotiations were taking place the government were building roads and fortifications in areas where the PKK guerrillas were previously active and where they could increase their observations of the local communities. While peace talks were taking place, they were preparing for war.”
In the run up to the elections opinion polls started to show that the HDP were building momentum, not just in the Kurdish areas but among sections of the Turkish population, especially amongst trade unionists, women and the LGBT communities. This was fulfilling a proposal from Ocalan that the Kurds should seek to build political alliances with other sections of the population.
From this point the attitude of Erdogan changed. He, it is suggested, realised that the prospect of peace was electorally damaging to his and his party’s prospects. From that point on Kurdish politicians were arrested, political activists were harassed and political meetings and rallies disrupted by police and army personnel.
Violence started to occur. HDP offices were fire-bombed and party staff attacked. Days before the election in a massive demonstration in support of the HDP in Diyarbakir a bomb went off killing 5 people and injuring many more.
Mahmut Simsek, who attended the demonstration and witnessed the scene said
“This was the first time I had seen Kurdish people so happy and optimistic. Their response to the bomb attack was dignified and our leaders called for a calm and peaceful response. However we feared what the response of Erdogan and the state would be following the HDP success and 6 million people voting for them. Erdogan was not happy and in fact he was angry.”
Soon it became clear that the preparations for war observed by the Human Rights Association were to be put into action.
A suicide bomb attack on a group of young socialists heading to deliver aid to Kobane, which the Kurdish forces of the PYG and PYJ had liberated, in the Syrian border town of Suruc was blamed on ISIS and prompted the Turkish government to claim that they were to join the fight against ISIS. However the killing of 2 police officers which, despite any evidence, was blamed on the PKK gave the state an excuse to transform their declared position to attack ISIS into a declaration of war against the ‘terrorists’ of the PKK.
Since then whilst one attack on ISIS positions has taken place there have been hundreds of attacks on the PKK bases in the Qandil mountains in Iraq. According to the HRA this includes attacks on PKK graveyards where the bodies of 20 year dead fighters have been blown up.
In addition hundreds of Kurdish activists, including HDP elected councillors and mayors have been arrested and repressive measures introduced in a number of areas.
In the town of Cizre groups of young people attempted to defen themselves and their community from attacks by the police by seizing control of the town and erecting defences to try to stop the state forces gaining access. This prompted a violent reaction where the town was placed under martial law and a curfew imposed. Civilians were shot and lay in the street. Unable to call an ambulance or transport their dead and wounded to hospital families looked after the living as best they could and sought to preserve the bodies of their dead by putting them in freezers.
Tragically one baby just 35 days old died from an illness. The family had to place the child’s body in a freezer as even they could not leave their home to take their dead baby to hospital.
This siege of Cizre lasted 8 days and even government Ministers were not allowed to enter the town. 94% of people in Cizre voted HDP and this was the state’s response.
Of course Erdogan insists that he is fighting against terrorists and governments in the west, including the UK, accept this position. However this position of the UK government is challenged by the Kurdish people. Mr. Inceoran, of the HRA, points out,
“The Turkish government were happy to negotiate with Mr. Ocalan when it suited their purposes. It was Mr Ocalan who initiated the peace process and the PKK who declared a ceasefire. Why are the west still using this term? It is the state who created this situation and it is in their hands to stop it.”
He was not confident the state would want to take such a step.
“We asked them to make a gesture, to agree to the release of PKK and other activists in prison who are terminally ill so that they could die at home. They refused.”
The current situation is extremely pessimistic. Erdogan has initiated a cycle of violence for purely electoral advantage. He hopes that people will give his party their vote in the re-called general election on 1st November. That Kurds will be intimidated from supporting the HDP and that Turks will vote for the AKP in support of their campaign against terrorism.
Erdogan cannot be trusted to re-engage in a peace process. Now more than ever foreign governments need to put pressure on Turkey to stop the violence and facilitate peace talks. However the HRA believes that the international community musty play a role in any future peace process. Mr Inceoran said,
“Freeing Ocalan is an important campaign. He is the Kurdsih leader with the authority to negotiate for peace. However any future peace discussions must include international observers as part of the process.”
Stephen Smellie 