DEM MP Sabahat Erdoğan Sarıtaş spoke to ANF about the consequences of the Turkish state's attacks on the Kurdish language and culture. She recalled the saying "Those who do not solve the Kurdish question will themselves be dissolved" and described it as an expression of a historical reality.

The AKP-MHP regime will not be able to escape this fate either, she said, adding: "This government has neither the strength nor the trust of the Kurdish people to solve the Kurdish question with its international implications." The politician added: "Seen in this way, the government only has one argument for its insistence that this question is insoluble: violence. The escalating violence of recent years is the result of precisely such a process. Since the last local elections, the government has become much more aggressive because it has not been able to realize the scenario it wanted. Because the Kurdish people have made it very clear that the regime cannot gain a place in Kurdistan through forced administration, usurpation and robbery. I am not saying this only with regard to the election results. The government's thinking on the Kurdish question, as it has been for the past hundred years, focuses on denial, annihilation and assimilation. This oppressive and murderous attitude still prevails. What we have experienced in recent months is proof that we are going back to the beginning of the Republic."

"Women and young people in particular are targeted"

As for the Turkish state's special war policy, Sabahat Erdoğan Sarıtaş said: "The state of inaction on the Kurdish question and the escalating violence have several implications. There is a policy that is not only based on violence, weapons and military but, above all, a special war policy that is even more dangerous. The increase in prostitution, drug use, etc. in the cities of Kurdistan cannot be considered a coincidence or something separate from the Kurdish question. At this point, it can be clearly stated that the main target group is women and young people. For this reason, we believe it is important that women and young people follow this policy consciously and attentively. It is a very intensive, comprehensive, gradual and time-phased approach, so unfortunately we cannot say: if we work hard today, we can solve it tomorrow. It is a long-term issue that can only be overcome with patience, perseverance and struggle. As I have already mentioned, women and young people are the main target groups. Not only in Turkey or Kurdistan, but all over the world, since the establishment of nation states, women and young people have been the main targets of these systems because they represent the greatest challenge to the status quo. Therefore, the priority of this system is to focus on these two main targets and block their path at all costs."

Organization is the antidote

The MP continued: "The special war policy is not only directed against individuals, but against the entire society. Currently, this policy, just like the isolation system, has spread to all areas of life and tries to imprison society and keep it in the dark. Through drugs, prostitution, spying, assimilation and forced migration, young people, especially young women, are driven out of society, organized life and their country and focused on an individualistic and false life.

Gülistan Doku is a concrete and clear example. We still do not know her fate, but she was a young woman who fell into the net of this policy. The strongest struggle against the male state that builds its existence on special war in Kurdistan is undoubtedly our autonomous women's organization. In order to protect our existence, our identity and our freedom, we must work and fight harder than ever before. The antidote to the special war policy is organization. We know that very well, and we explain it again and again."

The regime's violence is spreading to all areas

The MP also addressed the arrests of people for dancing Kurdish dances or the ban on the Kurdish language, and said: "The clearest, most striking example of the application of this policy to society is the criminalization of the Kurdish language that we have seen recently, and the raids on weddings, the detentions and arrests.

For years, we have been saying that isolation will spread to the whole of society, and it is exactly the point. If something is to be tried on the Kurdish people, it is done step by step and then extended to all Kurds. That is what we are experiencing here. The government continues to spread violence to all areas of life. It does this by trying to keep tension, hostility, strife and racism alive.

This has been happening for years and is repeatedly directed against Kurds, Armenians, Alevis, women, media workers, workers, students, professional associations, in other words, everyone who opposes this policy. People whose job it is to investigate perpetrators of violence, rapists and assaults continue to work night shifts to identify people dancing Kurdish dances and to remove Kurdish-language traffic signs. Weddings and henna nights are being invaded under the pretext of songs, slogans and dances.

All this shows us that the ruling bloc no longer needs to hide its true face. It is also proof that its policy towards the Kurds has ultimately hit the wall. Of course, this situation can be compared to the 1990s in some respects, but the point where both the world, the Kurdish movement and Turkey are now is different from those times. Therefore, the repression is generally more massive than it was then, but this time this repression is being met by a larger and better organized force. When the Kurdish people are hit, there are not only protests in Amed, Van, Mardin and Siirt. Now the alarm is being raised all over the world.

The Kurdish people have become a unique organized force over the years. Therefore, this cheap policy will not prolong the life of the AKP-MHP regime, but on the contrary, will shorten it. They have nothing left to give to society. Their history is over. They have exhausted the economy and ecology, technology is useless because they have already abused it, they have not managed to create culture and art. They have nothing left except anti-Kurdish hostility, hatred and violence. But this fuel will not take them where they want to go."

We will not accept any ban

Sabahat Erdoğan Sarıtaş stressed that repression is not new to the Kurdish people or Kurdish politics and continued: "They cannot make any progress by persecuting the Kurdish language, storming weddings and imposing compulsory administration. The AKP and Erdoğan have no sympathy in Kurdistan. Therefore, our path and our resistance is clear: We will not accept any ban, we will dance even more, we will speak our language even more, we will sing our songs louder, we will demand our will even more strongly.

Of course, we will have more say in politics, we will take new paths. We are the side of the solution, the third way. We will always be against those who base their politics on war, poverty, racism and ignorance. Our politics are the politics of life. We will never accept monism.  They have been trying the same things for 100 years and pretending they have just been reinvented. But if we look at history, it is clear that it does not work like that.

We are experienced enough and know enough history not to fall for these games. We know what we are doing and what we stand for, and the government knows that very well. This agenda has already partly fizzled out because it did not work, because society did not give in. People continue to dance, sing songs and speak Kurdish."