Northern and Eastern Syria Tev-Çand co-chair Xelil Tehlo spoke to the ANF about the increasing attacks by the Turkish state against Kurds and Kurdish culture. Tehlo said that the aim of these attacks is to completely eliminate Kurdish society and culture.

Tehlo said: "For some time now, the Turkish state has been attacking the Kurdish people and their culture, trampling on all human morality. In this way, it actually wants to eliminate the culture of the Kurdish people. It is trying to prevent the Kurds from expressing themselves with their own language, halay and dengbêji.

This is actually the reality of the Turkish state. It does not accept anything other than Turkishness. It does not accept any different society or people. The history of the Turkish state is built on the annihilation of peoples. A system that does not accept any society is building its own barbarity on existing societies. It wants to create an identity according to its own system by rejecting the identity of the peoples. It does this not to develop sociality and freedom, but only to create an identity on which it will establish its own hegemony. In short, it wants to establish its own domination over societies by depriving them of their identities.”

Tehlo added: “In fact, the Turkish state is developing such an understanding not only in the hegemony of the state, but also in Turkish society. It is gradually educating its own society and trying to make them accept that there is no one else other than themselves. There are many peoples within Turkey. All of these people have a deep-rooted history, culture, tradition and will. This reality destroys the Turkish state's hope of denying other people. The Turkish state knows this very well. It is not possible to destroy a people with a deep-rooted history. The Turkish state is actually bringing about its own end as it tries to establish itself on the destruction of societies."

'The Turkish state is violently attacking Kurdish culture'

Xelil Tehlo said that capitalism is currently trying to create a society that suits its own needs, and added that in order to exist within this new system, the Turkish state has cooperated with many dirty, bloody and barbaric forces in the past. Tehlo underlined that "Turkey supports, feeds and provides great opportunities to these forces, and that at this point, it is slowly moving towards its end."

Tehlo stated that the peoples of the world have now started to take a stand against these practices promoted by the Turkish state, and added: "In the current situation, no society or people can accept these approaches and practices. The Turkish state is trying to destroy the Kurdish people in North Kurdistan and within Turkey, and even uses refugees coming from abroad for this purpose.

The Turkish state has turned Turkey into a military barracks and denies all existing societies and peoples. However, sparks of resistance are slowly developing against it. The Kurdish people are clearly showing their stance against the Turkish state's system and are resisting all policies of attack, oppression and denial. This is why the Turkish state is launching such an extreme and deep attack."

Tehlo stated that the Turkish state is in great fear of Kurdish culture and therefore carries out barbaric attacks, and emphasized that the Turkish state does not allow people to practice their language and culture even in their own homes. "It cannot even tolerate a few people coming together and celebrating with their own culture. It bans this and describes it as a crime. Hegemonic powers want to create the culture and language of the people themselves. They base their systems on this foundation. In this way, they try to dominate societies and bring them under their own hegemony."

Tehlo said that the Turkish state is trying to make people fight against each other by dividing them, and added: "Previously, it was more of a physical genocide. The Turkish state was using all military methods as well as massacres to destroy the Kurdish people. But today, it is doing this a little more deeply. In addition to its policy of massacre, it is implementing a policy of melting and destroying in terms of culture. In fact, Leader Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] states that the entire Middle East is going through such a crisis. What all hegemonic powers want to do today is to separate and tear societies apart as a whole. In addition to cultural assimilation on societies and peoples, it will also divide these societies and dictate its own system more easily over them. Sometimes it does this through a state like the Turkish state, sometimes through formations like ISIS. In this way, it is trying to destroy all societies under a single hegemonic system and create a society and system it wants."

‘Peoples must develop their self-defense’

Tehlo said: “If the peoples and societies do not unite, if they do not develop their own self-defense against these attacks, they will perish. Because this system has also divided the peoples. Today, we are in a reconstruction process in Northern and Eastern Syria within the framework of the democratic nation project. This democratic system encompasses all the peoples and societies within itself. Here, both the peoples create their own defense and live with their own culture. If society cannot develop its own self-defense, it will not be defended by the hegemonic and ruling powers. Within the scope of the democratic nation project, the peoples must unite and protect their own existence. Even in nature, every living being has developed its own defense.

However, today in the Middle East, societies are hopeless, and the peoples have been left without will within the nation-state system. They have always been oppressed by the despotic system of the state they are in. In this sense, the peoples must save themselves from this and take ownership of their own will. Now, the peoples in Northern and Eastern Syria have such an opportunity. When we look at it today, the opposition forces that existed at the beginning of the revolution were dispersed by the systems and fragmented within themselves. However, these forces were the hope of the people at the beginning of the process. Because at that time, they were fighting for the interests of the people. But today, they have been brought to a position where they can be used against their own societies and people.”

Unity of peoples will be the death of the Turkish state

Tehlo continued: "In Northern and Eastern Syria, the democratic nation system is the answer to all the hopes of the people. For this reason, the Turkish state is putting into action all kinds of attack methods so that this system does not become the common hope and system of all peoples. What they are doing in Afrin today is obvious. The Turkish state is provoking the peoples against each other and trying to make them fight. It is using the gangs it has placed in many parts of Syria against the Kurds. It is trying to create the system it wants by making the peoples fight each other. In this case, we as the peoples need to know and recognize the realities of these systems well. Only in this way can we succeed in strengthening our will. The unity of the peoples will be the death of the Turkish state. In this sense, the democratic nation project that is developing in Northern and Eastern Syria within the framework of Leader Apo’s philosophy today can be the hope of all peoples."