PKK Executive Council Member Duran Kalkan spoke to Ersin Çelik from MED NÛÇE TV on recent developments and made several important statements which were translated by ANF English service below.

Kalkan said the followings in response to Çelik's question "What is the AKP’s goal in lifting the immunities of HDP parliamentarians? Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-President Hatip Dicle spoke on this issue and said that the political consequences of this decision would be serious, unlike the similar decision made in 1994. What are your thoughts on this?".

DTK Co-President Hatip Dicle’s statement is important and meaningful, everyone in Turkey should pay attention to it. Everybody should know that the statement reflects the feelings of a society.

Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP always try to portray their psychology and position as if they belonged to others. For example, he said ‘they will either kneel down or die,’ but this is the experience of the AKP. They will either surrender or collapse!

They said that ‘bandits are in the parliament.’ This is true, they were talking about themselves. AKP terror is everywhere, the state’s fascist genocidal terror is everywhere. It destroyed Kurdish towns such as Cizre and Sur, and is not destroying Nusaybin, Gever and Şırnak. They arrest tens of civilians everyday through their political genocide operations. The Kurdish genocide is on going, and the fascist police terror targets journalists, academics and intellectuals.

AKP does not hesitate to say that it will silence and crush all of its political opposition through its fascist violence. Crushing opposition is Tayyip Erdoğan’s tool of political terror. Fascist terrorism targets social groups as it roams across Kurdistan and Turkey, and it reflected upon the parliament. The lifting of immunities and the attacks on HDP parliamentarians are parts of this fascist terrorism.

They want to extend their power to govern through oppressing, intimidating and pacifying the society. HDP parliamentarians reflect what the people desire and carry resistance into the parliament. They stand up for the democratic rights of the society, this is why the AKP approaches them with hatred and tries to expel them from the parliament. Tayyip Erdoğan’s main goal is to silence everyone who exposes the AKP’s terror.

They have been silencing Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı for more than a year now. They shut down a media organization as soon as it freely expresses itself. They imprison people and charge them with terrorism and treason. They are in power and use it as they see fit.

This is a fascist mentality; it is the mentality of Hitler. But Tayyip Erdoğan should know that what he is doing is dangerous. If you use power as a tool of your political struggle, others will do that as well. They say that the PKK should stop using violence as a political tool. If the PKK uses it 1 percent, the AKP and the Turkish sate use it 100 percent! Who is the one that is using terror, violence, guns and batons as political tools? Isn’t the truth in plain sight? Aren’t houses being raided and civilians being terrorized everyday? Is this not violence? They say that the state has this right and privilege. If the state assumes such a right, everyone will declare themselves as states and assume the same right.

This is at the root of Hatip Dicle’s statement on ‘breaking away.’ If you oppress Kurdish people, of course they will look for alternatives. They will seek existing and living freely, and you are not their only alternative. If you use power against them, they will empower themselves and use it against you. Nobody is obliged to be the AKP’s slave, people will only unite with you if you listen to them and respect their right to life and freedom. The old period of slavery is over; the PKK was born as a response to their policies of genocide. A free courage and a spirit of self-sacrifice emerged with the PKK.

I am not saying that Kurdish people will break away; they will resist and bring down the AKP. Kurds will unite with the Turks, resist more, struggle more, mobilize more, and bring down the AKP. They will increase their struggle for existence and freedom as they build friendships and alliances with all oppressed groups. This has been happening for a while now.

Turkish society should be more courageous, conscious and resilient. It is impossible to live under the rule of such a fascist mentality and practice of terror. It is necessary to put an end to this; it is impossible to tolerate the AKP. The whole world, including the US, cannot tolerate the AKP. They won’t even meet with AKP officials. Ahmet Davutoğlu tried to go and meet with them, and they said ‘we don’t have time.’ Tayyip Erdoğan went but nobody shook his hand. He found some Jewish people and tried to apologize for what he said about Israel. Turkish society should see that it could no longer live with this cruelty. Yes, they are trying to intimidate but the society should not be scared. Especially the society’s leading forces; intellectuals, writers, politicians, academicians, young people, and women – the groups that need freedom the most – should not kneel before fascism. This fascist order can be dismantled and this system can be destroyed.