Besê Hozat: Policies targeting the municipalities in Kurdistan are genocidal policies



ANF
BEHDINAN
Thursday, 5 December 2024, 07:50

In the third part of this interview with Medya Haber TV, Besê Hozat, Co-President of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council, spoke about the policy of trustees implemented by the Turkish government as well as the crisis of the Turkish government.

The first part of this interview can be read here and the second here.

While the Turkish state is still talking about solutions, its real target is liquidation, and within this framework, they seized the municipalities of the DEM Party and CHP. As far as it is understood from the statements of the government spokespersons, these occupations will continue. How is this rapprochement to be understood? And how do you assess the reaction of the people against these occupations?

The agenda in Turkey must be understood and grasped well. In October 2014, there was a decision taken by the genocidal Turkish state at the meeting of the National Security Council; they decided on the so-called ‘çöktürme’ plan, the ‘Precipitation Plan.’ The Precipitation Plan was an update of the so-called ‘Eastern Reform Plan.’ It was to continue the policies of total genocide in a much deeper and more comprehensive manner and to wage a total war. This was the aim. This plan was put into action on April 5, 2015, after the talks with Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] were broken off by the Turkish state and the annihilation attacks against the guerrillas began. A total genocidal offensive was developed against the people on a physically, culturally, ecologically, and economically level. Of course, these attacks were not limited to northern Kurdistan. A fundamental pillar of this was Rojava. The attacks on Rojava continued uninterruptedly. Here, the annexation and occupation attacks in northern Kurdistan came into effect in the following years. These total genocidal attacks continued with all their intensity. They were aimed at the destruction and liquidation of the PKK and were also aimed at bringing the genocidal policies to a conclusion. They did not get any result from this. The movement developed a very strong resistance. The guerrillas resisted and did not lose any positions. It put up a tremendous resistance against all kinds of attacks. Of course, there were martyrdoms and heavy losses, but the guerrilla resistance continued sacrificially. The movement maintained its strength and survived. They developed comprehensive attacks against the people, but they could not break the will of the people. The people resisted, and this resistance continues very strongly until today. They attacked democratic politics, put tens of thousands of people in their prisons through their political genocidal operations, and tortured them. Sick prisoners were murdered. But still, they did not get any result from this either. The people resisted and continue their resistance. They conducted genocidal attacks on Rojava, occupying and annexing some places, but the people resisted. A great resistance was developed alongside the strategy of revolutionary people’s war. They carried out torture, isolation, genocidal policies, and attacks on Rêber Apo and tried to break his will. Terrible pressure and violence; special warfare was carried out in Imrali. Imrali always was the center of their genocidal policies. But there they could not get any result either. Rêber Apo put forward a very strong resistance attitude and developed it. In fact, the whole resistance developed according to this attitude. They could not get results from their attacks. In the current evening, the Third World War has created new situations in the region. Balances are changing, maps are changing, borders are changing… New situations are emerging. The region is being redesigned on the basis of Israel’s security. Turkey is experiencing a very serious crisis in its domestic and foreign politics. Its politics has collapsed, its economy has collapsed, social decay is at its peak, and the state has collapsed with all its institutions. Developments outside the country are also putting a serious strain on Turkey, and it is gradually becoming a center of the war. And within this Third World War and within all these developments, our movement is struggling and resisting, and our people are standing up everywhere. The guerrilla is in resistance, fighting sacrificially.

All these developments have led the Turkish state, the current AKP-MHP fascist government, to a serious panic and anxiety. They fear for their power. How long can it prevail? The economy has collapsed, society has decayed, there is a terrible disintegration, there is polarization, and violence has become the daily reality of society. From outside, there is a serious blockage in politics. They can no longer carry out that balance policy as they want. Its geopolitical position is weakening. So all this has led this government into a great fear and panic. Now, in these conditions, in this conjuncture, they have developed a counter plan in order to prevent the PKK, the Kurdish people, and generally the peoples from benefiting. The government wants to continue its Kurdish genocidal policies with a new game in order to survive and sustain itself. There is no renunciation of the Kurdish genocidal policies. There is no such thing as a peace or solution process. Neither is there such a situation of peace, nor do they have such an intention, mentality, and policy. They lack the necessary democratic understanding to bring up a solution. All they are trying to do is come up with a new game in this difficult period in order to bring their genocidal policies to a conclusion without interrupting them and by eliminating the obstacles that stand in their way. This is the summary of all that is happening. It is necessary to see it like this and understand it.

Ömer Öcalan’s meeting with Rêber Apo was a result of this. It is a game they have set up. They needed something to serve this game, to make the Kurds and society believe, to create expectations. Now they have put the meeting of the DEM Party co-chairs or a delegation from the DEM Party on the agenda. In other words, they are trying to create more expectations and hope in the Kurdish people, to neutralize their resistance through such discussions of solution and peace, to reduce their power of struggle and resistance, to keep them in a waiting position, to keep them in a position of ineffectiveness, without struggle, and with this, to bring their newly designed genocidal policies to a conclusion.

Would a state, a government with the true intention of creating a solution, with the true intention of creating honorable peace, develop such policies of occupation of municipalities? Would it usurp municipalities? They started in Merdin (tr. Mardin), Elih, Xelfeti (tr. Halfeti), Dersim (tr. Tunceli), Pulur (tr. Ovacik), and most recently they usurped the municipality of Miks (tr. Bahcesaray). They will develop it even further. Maybe they will leave a few municipalities to create the perception and image that Turkey is a state of law, but they will appoint trustees to most of the other municipalities; they will occupy and usurp them. This trustee policy is part of the genocidal policies. They have already done it in the past, and now it is their third term. What they did before was also part of the genocidal policies, a continuation, and what they are doing now is also a part and a continuation of it. A municipality is the house of the people. But in Turkey the municipality does not have much authority, since the authorities are centralized in Ankara. The Turkish state is the most centralized, fascist, and genocidal state in the region and the world. It has centralized all powers in Ankara and concentrated them in one hand. Despite this, they do not accept that the municipalities remain in Kurdish hands. Now, how will a state that doesn’t accept that Kurds are running municipalities solve the Kurdish question? How will it ensure an honorable peace? How will it make peace with the Kurds? Is this possible? It detains, arrests, expels, occupies, and seizes the co-mayors who have won the municipalities with high and clear votes for three terms. It ignores the will of the people. In Kurdistan, it has basically undermined the right to vote and the right to be voted for and made it worthless. And now these policies have spread across Turkey. So they will develop it in Shevshek (tr. Esenyurt) and in other municipalities until Istanbul, step by step. After intimidating the Kurds, after crushing democratic politics, after rendering it ineffective, they will target the last remains of the opposition.

These policies targeting the municipalities in Kurdistan should be seen as genocidal policies. A colonialist, genocidal law is at work. There are discussions about a solution and peace, but if a solution should seriously be discussed, then a democratic, pluralist, and libertarian constitution must be made in Turkey. The existence and identity of Kurds must be recognized in the constitution. Kurds should receive education in their mother tongue. Kurds should be able to receive education in their mother tongue, develop and live their culture freely, they should be given political rights, they should be able to govern themselves, they should have self-governance, and the existence and identity of Kurds should be recognized. If there are discussions on a solution and peace, these need to be clear from the very beginning. The current discussion on peace and solutions is solely an agenda created as part of their special war. A genocidal war is raging; genocidal attacks, usurpation, occupation, torture, and violence take place. This whole agenda that is currently being developed in northern Kurdistan and Turkey should definitely be evaluated as a special war game that is being constructed in order to bring the genocidal policies to a conclusion. All of Devlet Bahceli’s and Erdogan’s rhetoric must be considered as part of this special war game, as part of the genocidal policies. Their main and only goal and intention is this: to leave the Kurds without struggle, to render their resistance ineffective, to create false expectations in the Kurds.

This is what they aim for. The resistance, social and political struggle, must continue very strongly everywhere. When the trustees were appointed, the reaction was good at the beginning. Indeed, our people showed a strong reaction. But this reaction is not very sustained. One of the main reasons is the effect of these special war policies and games. So this affects it to a certain point. Some people are still discussing that the state is meeting with Ocalan, that they are going to bring the DEM Party into talks, that there are talks in Imrali, that there are negotiations and bargains, and so on and so on. They say that the state is implementing the trustee policy to strengthen its hand and elaborate that therefore, it is better not to show too much of a reaction against it. Such a special war is being waged, and some individuals are serving it. This is dangerous.

Once again, there is no change in the genocidal mentality, denial, extermination mentality, and policies of the Turkish state over the last one hundred years. On the contrary, in the current political conjuncture, under the circumstances of the Third World War, there is an effort to bring these policies to a conclusion with a new game, a special warfare. All these changes in discourse should be considered as part of a special war game. Therefore, there must be no relaxation in the resistance, and there must be no wrong expectation; it is necessary to strengthen the struggle. In other words, the way to a solution and the way to an honorable peace is through resistance, through struggle, through increasing and strengthening the struggle. In order to be able to strengthen the position of Rêber Apo, the way to do this is through struggle and resistance.