No Tav in Diyarbakýr
No Tav in Diyarbakýr
Daniele Forte from the Laboratorio Civico di Almese (Val di Susa), was a member of the delegation which participated as observers to the KCK (Kurdish Communities Union) trial in Diyarbakýr.
Val Susa is a valley in the Piedmont region of Italy, a few kilometers from Turin. In this valley since 2005 a huge resistance is going on. It is called NO TAV (No to the High Speed Train) and it involves the majority of the citizens of the valley and far beyond the valley. NO TAV is a movement that opposes the creation of the new high speed railway line between Turin and Lyon in France. This line is part of a EU project which plans to connect Lyon to Budapest and then onto Ukraine. Similar protest movements were active in the early 90s in Florence, Bologna and Rome, but their militancy and the brutal repression that this triggered in the Susa Valley has made the Piedmontese movement the most talked about.
Here is Daniele Forte's account of his visit to Diyarbakýr.
The morning greets us in Diyarbakýr with a clear but cool sun. The appointment is at 10.00 am in front of the court, which fortunately is close to the hotel and can be reached on foot. It is hard for us to distinguish in this city at the door of Central Asian institutional buildings from private management buildings. It is the metal fences, automatic rifles, police deployments to remind us that, wherever legitimate instances of freedom are suppressed and justice denied, the universal language has a dramatically similar language.
The scenario, despite the differences in the dimension, inevitably evokes in us from the Val Susa (Susa Valley, a valley near Turin, Italy), images of metal fences, boots, and barbed wire that we know too well. One Polis tank, equipped with a water hydrant, welcomes us with the engine running, almost to remember us that despite the official and institutional theatre, tension are high and concrete. During the weekend that preceded our arrival a boy paid with his own life his tribute to the protest. That it was not a pleasure trip on the other hand had been made clear by the immediate expulsion, at Istanbul airport, of one of the members of the delegation, lawyer Arturo Salerni, "guilty" of having assisted at the request of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan political asylum in Italy. With honesty in fact we must admit that the similarities with the Maddalena (a place in Val Susa) run out against the burnished metal of weapons: batons here are replaced by robust machine guns from which, obviously, a different thing that a simple deterrent is expected.
Next to the court friends of the association "Verso il Kurdistan" proudly show their banner, and have a short march up to the check-in entrance where there are masks and armored vehicles, but luckily also journalists and photographers ready for interviews . The delegation of lawyers, including five members of the NOTAV Legal Team, are among the first to cross the fence to the red zone. The qualification is not sufficient to grant immediate access to the court and, together with Basque and Swedish MPs, also present, the lawyers are engaged in intense negotiations: we take the opportunity to capture some shots with the NOTAV flag flying against the military vehicles, to reaffirm the fact that "Val Susa has no fear" anywhere in the world. At the end of the negotiations, entry is granted to anyone: there is a huge crowd but not anyone will be allowed into the actual court room. Power, however, is perpetually ready to try avoiding the brotherhood between the parties. Even after being scanned with a metal detector, not all are permitted to enter the courtroom where the trial is held: eggs, glasses boxes, batteries, packaged food, everything is considered to be potentially dangerous, but first of all the flags the various activists bring with them everywhere are considered a threat.
We resolve to leave the building: the eyes and smiles of the Kurds comfort us. It will be the lawyers to describe the climate and the outcome of the hearing to which they could assist.
Val Susa is a valley in the Piedmont region of Italy, a few kilometers from Turin. In this valley since 2005 a huge resistance is going on. It is called NO TAV (No to the High Speed Train) and it involves the majority of the citizens of the valley and far beyond the valley. NO TAV is a movement that opposes the creation of the new high speed railway line between Turin and Lyon in France. This line is part of a EU project which plans to connect Lyon to Budapest and then onto Ukraine. Similar protest movements were active in the early 90s in Florence, Bologna and Rome, but their militancy and the brutal repression that this triggered in the Susa Valley has made the Piedmontese movement the most talked about.
Here is Daniele Forte's account of his visit to Diyarbakýr.
The morning greets us in Diyarbakýr with a clear but cool sun. The appointment is at 10.00 am in front of the court, which fortunately is close to the hotel and can be reached on foot. It is hard for us to distinguish in this city at the door of Central Asian institutional buildings from private management buildings. It is the metal fences, automatic rifles, police deployments to remind us that, wherever legitimate instances of freedom are suppressed and justice denied, the universal language has a dramatically similar language.
The scenario, despite the differences in the dimension, inevitably evokes in us from the Val Susa (Susa Valley, a valley near Turin, Italy), images of metal fences, boots, and barbed wire that we know too well. One Polis tank, equipped with a water hydrant, welcomes us with the engine running, almost to remember us that despite the official and institutional theatre, tension are high and concrete. During the weekend that preceded our arrival a boy paid with his own life his tribute to the protest. That it was not a pleasure trip on the other hand had been made clear by the immediate expulsion, at Istanbul airport, of one of the members of the delegation, lawyer Arturo Salerni, "guilty" of having assisted at the request of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan political asylum in Italy. With honesty in fact we must admit that the similarities with the Maddalena (a place in Val Susa) run out against the burnished metal of weapons: batons here are replaced by robust machine guns from which, obviously, a different thing that a simple deterrent is expected.
Next to the court friends of the association "Verso il Kurdistan" proudly show their banner, and have a short march up to the check-in entrance where there are masks and armored vehicles, but luckily also journalists and photographers ready for interviews . The delegation of lawyers, including five members of the NOTAV Legal Team, are among the first to cross the fence to the red zone. The qualification is not sufficient to grant immediate access to the court and, together with Basque and Swedish MPs, also present, the lawyers are engaged in intense negotiations: we take the opportunity to capture some shots with the NOTAV flag flying against the military vehicles, to reaffirm the fact that "Val Susa has no fear" anywhere in the world. At the end of the negotiations, entry is granted to anyone: there is a huge crowd but not anyone will be allowed into the actual court room. Power, however, is perpetually ready to try avoiding the brotherhood between the parties. Even after being scanned with a metal detector, not all are permitted to enter the courtroom where the trial is held: eggs, glasses boxes, batteries, packaged food, everything is considered to be potentially dangerous, but first of all the flags the various activists bring with them everywhere are considered a threat.
We resolve to leave the building: the eyes and smiles of the Kurds comfort us. It will be the lawyers to describe the climate and the outcome of the hearing to which they could assist.
