Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-President and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP for Hakkari, Selma Irmak, spoke to ANF about the situation in Yüksekova (Gever) district where she made observations yesterday.

Irmak said the attacks by state forces in Yüksekova deliberately targeted civilians and warned that a big massacre could take place unless the people resisted in an organized manner.

'HOUSES OF THE PEOPLE WERE TARGETED BY BOMBS'

Irmak told the followings on what happened in Yüksekova; "We visited the houses targeted and damaged by bombs and bullets. The curfew was lifted yesterday morning but there is big anger among the people who witnessed and suffered a savagery. What we saw is that mortars were fired on houses, which luckily caused no casualties as people had left their homes. A bomb thrown on Mele İbrahim's house pierced through three walls, we didn't understand what kind of a bullet or bomb that was. The imam living in that house was injured and hospitalized. We later learned that he had been heavily wounded and taken under surgery. Another house was also targeted by bullets thrown from armored vehicles. We talked to the owner of a house in which security forces entered after breaking the door by force, accusing the household of having ties with the PKK and vowing to continue the crackdown."

Irmak said the district was like a powder barrel, and it was yet not clear how many people have lost their lives in the conflict.

'PEOPLE CONTINUE THE RESISTANCE'

Pointing to the ongoing resistance in the district, Irmak said people criticized themselves at some points for the loss of lives which they say wouldn't have happened had they acted more organizedly. "Yet, they continue the resistance, which forced the armored vehicles retreat the night before when curfew was still in effect. Security forces attacked once again during the night while the people were sleeping."

Putting emphasis on the need for a stronger organization of self-defense mechanisms, Irmak said the people should be able to protect themselves from attacks all together and not allow police and military to enter their neighborhoods. "They should be able to mount an all-out defense because a dispersed resistance in panic would clear the way for big massacres and encourage the state forces further in staging crackdowns. The people should therefore enhance their organized state as immediate as possible."

'WE WILL NOT GIVE UP ON SELF-RULE'

Irmak said the people were insistent on self-rule and wouldn't give up on it, especially after so many losses of life suffered during the resistance. She emphasized that the people's determination on self-rule would not end until brought to a successful conclusion.

"We need to establish bodies and mechanisms of self-rule against those who are responding to this demand of ours with massacres. This needs to be done in a theoretical and organized manner because a disordered structure would be doomed to fail."

CALL FOR THE RECOGNITION OF SELF-RULE

Calling on the AKP to treat the people's demand for self-rule constructively, Irmak cited examples from across the world, and underlined that self-rule, democratic autonomy, cantonal system, whatever it may be called, didn't split countries, but on the contrary transformed them into more democratic structures.

Pointing to the centralist system as the source of the problems, Irmak called on Turkish authorities to pay attention to the fair and legitimate demand of the Kurdish people to establish self-rule in their territory.