Duran Kalkan, member of the KCK Executive Council, talked about the repression in Turkey.

The situation within Turkey is very heavy right now. A lot of repression is taking place and a war is being waged against society. How do you evaluate the situation within Turkey? What can you tell us about the propagated picture of the Turkish state media?

There is no need to list the repression in Turkey and North Kurdistan. When you look at the newspapers or the television, it almost darkens your soul. It is like a nightmare. Things are being done that should never happen, that should never be done. It is like wearing a straitjacket. I wonder what kind of state of mind the people watching those televisions are in, what kind of insanity are they in? Because they always report such news and this is happening. This is happening, and it is a clear situation. As the struggle of the guerrilla, the struggle of the people grows and develops, the Tayyip Erdoğan administration, the AKP-MHP fascism is collapsing, rotting, shaking, it could fall at any moment. Nothing can save him. He clings to more evil, he markets himself more, he markets Turkey’s opportunities.

He participates in more conspiracies and provocations. He turns people into bloodsuckers. He was a bloodsucker in the case of Gaza. He is still negotiating in NATO. They are continuing the Swedish bargain in order to get more power, to get more support, to mobilize more people to go to war against the Kurds, against the PKK, to make them partners in this genocidal war. They are holding people, killing them, applying all kinds of pressure. It has become so much so that it is not even clear who is doing what and what they are going to do. There is no law, no law at all. We have seen how the so-called state, the so-called institutions of the state are getting into each other. We can see the fight between the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of Cassation is like a “head-breaker”. There is such a reality. Rêber Apo said “there is no politics in Turkey.” It is the mechanism of the coup d’état that is now functioning in the fascist dictatorship. Every day politics continues with coups, provocations, fascist oppression, terror and persecution. They arrest people and put them in prisons. The pressure and torture there are at an extreme level. They give sentences in vain. They don’t let them go even when the sentences are over.

There is a complete arbitrary rule, there is a dictatorship. Everything is being done to keep Tayyip Erdoğan in power. Now, within this framework, as such a struggle grows, it is shaken from its foundations. Pressure and violence are also increasing. Lawlessness is developing at a very advanced level. We have seen an increasing number of arrests recently. And it seems that this will continue to increase. Because there is another election ahead of us. In order to make gains there, they will apply all kinds of pressure, terror and persecution. That is the only way this government survives, wins, claims to win elections and comes to power. All these elections are a mask for power. It wins elections with this oppression. This reality needs to be well opposed.

I can say this to our people, patriots, women, youth, political workers, the people of Turkey, the peoples, revolutionary democratic forces, our international friends and allies in Turkey, the patriotic democratic people of Turkey, women, youth, workers, pensioners; All this is a matter of struggle. Yes, there is a lot of oppression and persecution, but why is this happening?

There is a network of interests that exploits and destroys everything, and is anti-Kurdish. For this, it has turned Turkey into a hell. Also it is being shaken to its foundations. It will collapse, it wants its power through war. It is fighting against the Kurds. It supports the war in Ukraine, it has started the war in Gaza. It feeds on war from all sides. It attacks Rojava, Northern Syria, attacks South Kurdistan. It imposes all kinds of fascist repressive terror at home. This is how it survives.

Fascism will be crushed if we wage a bigger struggle, if we are more organized, if we engage in a collective struggle together. We need to see this, we need to believe this. We need to turn ourselves into such a fighting force. We need to unite more, to understand better, that is, to be more combative, to be in solidarity. We need to be more in solidarity with those arrested. We need to help the families of those arrested more. Kurdish people, women, youth, patriots in Kurdistan should definitely develop such social solidarity. No one should feel lonely or see themselves as weak.

There must be complete unity against fascism. Social solidarity must reach this level. It must be like this all over Turkey. All the oppressed people of the Turkish society should definitely develop such solidarity, unity and common struggle on the basis of the goal of overthrowing fascism. If we are like this, we will be able to stand up against all kinds of attacks, we will stand firm, we will be a fighting force. If we unite more in the struggle, if we fight effectively with new methods, we will definitely overthrow fascism and free Turkey and democratic Kurdistan.

By destroying the system of torture, isolation and genocide on Imrali, we will ensure the physical freedom of Rêber Apo. These goals are not unrealizable. Achieving these goals has become much closer. Fascism will collapse on shaky ground. It is necessary to develop a resistance that will collapse it in the strongest way. Our call is on this basis. I wholeheartedly greet everyone who struggles on this basis and wish them great success.