KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency voiced support to People’s Councils’ declaration of self-governance in Şırnak and said that Kurdish people have no option but self-governance in the face of AKP government’s insistence on the nation state.

In its written statement, the Co-Presidency of KCK underlined the terror of AKP government in towns such as Gever, Silopi and Cizre, and stated that Kurdish people have recently been enduring oppression and cruelty unmatched during the century-old hegemonic, genocidal, central and cultural sovereignty of the Turkish state. KCK noted that all methods of oppression, tyranny and torture have been used against Kurds, and the treatment of workers in Gever illustrated the approach of the Turkish state’s city and district governors, civil servants, soldiers and police officers towards Kurdish people. KCK recalled that the mentality in Gever has been carrying out massacres, killing civilians, burning villages, forcing Kurds to migrate, torturing people and trying to break Kurdish people’s wills for centuries. The statement also reminded that Kurdish people’s ideas, words, stances and demands have always been ignored, and the state has been quelling Kurdish people’s dissent with violence and oppression.

KCK noted that the Turkish state’s mentality and policies have not changed, and cultural genocidal policies have been implemented with minor methodical alterations. KCK stated that with its mentality and policy of one nation, one country, and one flag, AKP government was trying to get results by continuing the state’s centuries-old cultural genocidal policies, and the centralist genocidal system has been enforced upon Kurds and other peoples in Turkey.

CENTRAL AUTHORITARIAN SYSTEM IGNORING LOCAL WILL IS IMPLEMENTED

The KCK Executive Council Co-Presidency stated that Kurdish people have been struggling for decades in order to preserve their existence and defend a free and democratic life, with different methods including guerilla resistance.

The statement emphasized that democratic political methods have been prioritized in the solution of the Kurdish issue, but Kurdish people’s will has always been ignored as the AKP government’s stance portrays today. KCK recalled that Kurdish people and the democracy forces of Turkey strengthened democratic resistance by uniting under the roof of HDP, but the state responded with tensions and conflict as opposed to democratization as the period after June 7 elections illustrated.

“The Turkish state increased violence and arrests in order to break the will of Kurdish people and democracy forces, just like it had done after the elections on March 29, 2009.”

KCK recalled that 80 percent of Kurdish, Arab, Azeri, Turkmen, Terekeme, Süryani, Alevi, and Shia peoples in Kurdistan voted for HDP, but the state ignored the will of these people and governed the region with hostility through its centrally appointed city and district governors. The statement pointed out that the ban on access to highlands, forests and gardens under the name of security zones is the proof of this hostile governance, and Turkey was ruled by an authoritarian central system that ignores peoples’ will, as opposed to the democratic self-rule of the people. KCK pointed out that the ban on local democracy aimed to prevent the benefit people would receive through local self-rule, and the centuries-long oppression and war in Kurdistan aimed to take villages and even families under central state control.

TURKISH STATE AIMS TO DESTROY DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONALIZATION

Stressing that state mentality and policies terrorize all cities and districts today, and arrests and tortures everyone who objects to the despotic state system, KCK noted that Kurdish people no longer want to be ruled by this despotic, arbitrary, centralist, and authoritarian system, and many houses, streets, neighborhoods, and cities took steps for self-governance. KCK stated that the Turkish state did not tolerate locally organized democracy and attacked it, but peoples of Kurdistan resist these attacks through self-defense.

The statement emphasized that the Turkish state aimed to destroy democratic institutionalization with its massacre of civilians in Cizre, Silopi, Nusaybin and other towns, and AKP government and Tayyip Erdoğan insist on war by announcing everyone as terrorist as opposed to respecting people’s democratic will.

ENTIRE SOCIETY SHOULD SUPPORT SELF-GOVERNANCES

KCK recalled that People’s Assemblies in Silopi, Cizre, Nusaybin and Şırnak announced that they no longer recognize state institutions, would rule themselves through the self-governances they declared, and defend themselves against attacks through legitimate self-defense.

“The peoples of Kurdistan have no option but self-governance after the ruling political mentality’s manipulation of Leader Apo’s and the Kurdish Freedom Movement’s reasonable solution proposals, refusal of a democratic and political solution, and insistence on a monist pro-nation state understanding as opposed to respecting people’s desire for local democracy and the solution of Turkey’s problems through the country’s democratization.”

Stating that Kurdish people had no goal but to develop democracy locally, rule itself, democratize Turkey, and help peoples of Turkey live free and democratic lives, KCK added that peoples had to express such a political will because political institutions in Turkey have no interest in democratizing the country and acknowledging local democracy.

Calling upon the Turkish state and its political forces to respect people’s will and acknowledge democratic institutions in order to end the political deadlock and war in Turkey, KCK warned that attacking peoples’ democratic will and self-governance would only deepen the conflict and drag Turkey into the chaos of the Middle East.

KCK further called upon all democratic forces in Turkey and international powers to take responsibility for Turkey’s democratization and take a stance against state attacks in order to resolve problems, and ended its statement by saying that peoples’ democratic will would succeed and those who insist on the centralist totalitarian system that attacks local attempts to build democracy would inevitably lose.