Tuðluk: AKP is a military government with an Islamic disguise
Tuðluk: AKP is a military government with an Islamic disguise
In an interview to Özgür Gündem paper, Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair and Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Aysel Tuðluk told to journalist Zana Kaya the 12 September trial is a deception and said that; “The AKP government is a typical 12 September government with Islamic an identity.”
Tuðluk warned that “Turkey is rapidly heading towards a political fragmentation” and pointed out that the state has only two choices; “either to solve the problems through justice or to continue with physical and political slaughter. There is no third way.”
* The New Strategy plan has been whispered to the public opinion in the recent term. It later came out that this plan was based on exclusion of negotiations like those made in Oslo and Imralý. Is it possible to reach a solution with strategies that refuse to come to the table with the answerers of the problem?
- It is not worth taking this discussion seriously. Nobody should deceive himself as there is no solution in question. A state and a government which risks war to prevent the Kurds in Syria from gaining a right and status can do anything “inside”. As a matter of fact, we have recently experienced the first practices of this approach; the Roboski slaughter, the attack targeting Ahmet Türk, the KCK arrests out of control, the attacks against the people in Newroz events etc. As seen, they may target everyone and do everything.
* Unless the AKP government negotiates with Öcalan, will it be possible to end the war and to open ways for a solution to the Kurdish question?
- The government is following the same strategy in the issue of Öcalan too. The state should make a decision now as it cannot continue to hold Öcalan in this position. It cannot go on like this!
The isolation of Öcalan aims not to exclude but to include him into the equation as the government intends to ensure the “sustainability of the deadlock” by means of Öcalan. This is what they call “using Öcalan” and the reason why the isolation is applied so severely with imposition and extortion that have made Öcalan fade from the scene, saying that “he wouldn’t let the government use him”. He resists against extortion and says that he can only step in the process to enable a fair solution. This is what reversed the state’s strategy and made them turn towards isolation with anger.
Öcalan, even if he is allowed, won’t see his family and lawyers in this process as the matter has gone beyond the routine relationship and communication. By refusing to see his brother who went to visit him, Öcalan stopped the state’s isolation being a means of pressure. Now, there is a resistance which only aims negotiation condition for a fair and honorable peace. I should remind that Öcalan is the “thin ice” between Kurds and Turks, and between Turkey and Kurdistan. Should there be a separation, it will be take place as a result of the negative approach towards Öcalan. Or, should there be a togetherness, equality and freedom, it will also come true as a result of a positive approach towards him. The Öcalan issue is such a fragile and determinative case.
The Kurdish question can only be solved over Öcalan, all other ways will be nothing but a loss…
*How realistic are the arguments the government has put forward in terms of interlocution?
-The Kurdish political movement has already made this discussion clear and announced that Öcalan, Kandil and BDP are the answerers of the problem. Each side has a different role, mission, area as well as an agreed solution schedule.
However, if the AKP insists on looking for parties, persons and groups that stand against PKK and Öcalan, it should for once try coming to the table and finding a solution to the Kurdish issue with them. There are already many formations in this position, even within the AKP itself. If it can, it should negotiate with them, without forcing BDP to do and to be something else. They should try this way and solve the problem if they think they could!
As our identity, line, principles, values and solution program are all definite; we could make negotiations if they want to. However, they shouldn’t try to subject us to impositions, insults, slanders and preconditions…
It should be respected that the BDP doesn’t contrary to its people, values and principles. They should accept us as we are, which means to respect their addressees. Our agenda focuses on a struggle for a solution. The Democratic Kurdish politics doesn’t only expect a solution and voice its demands but also gives a struggle for a solution. We could together discuss and reach a solution with the AKP if it also has such an agenda. However, I am saying from an objective perspective that the AKP government doesn’t even intend to form a solution program because of the fact that they think the Kurdish problem doesn’t exist. They could easily ensure a solution if they had well intended approaches. I am sorry but peace will not arrive this spring…
* How do you evaluate Prime Minister Erdoðan’s policy for intervention in Syria and forming a buffer area?
- We could have already ensured a very different ground and level in the Kurdish issue by now if the Turkish state practiced half of the “reforms” it imposes on Syria. It says that “security cannot be prior to reforms” and tell Syria to “draw its army and tanks away from the cities” and to “make a new constitution, to pave the way for freedoms, to change the system and to ensure right and justice”. Could a country ever be in such a great contradiction to itself? All those Turkey proposes Syria are right and fair demands but in this case
won’t people tell Turkey to do the same things itself? Indeed, this is what Syrian and even Iraqi authorities tell Erdoðan to do.
One third of the Turkish army is positioned in Kurdistan. Moreover, the state has also formed a police presence which is also as powerful as the army. These security forces don’t allow ten people to come together, they use tear gas, sticks and arms when the others are not enough. They disperse, beat and kill people. they take tens of thousands of people into custody and arrest thousands of them. Pressures, violations and prohibitions equally good to fascism have already become usual things. There is a one-man and one-party government in effect.
What is the difference actually between Syria and Turkey? Aren’t both countries the same in terms of their essence and forms? Erdoðan is becoming an Assad and Turkey a Syria in the eye of Kurds. The government cannot deceive anybody with demagogy.
Turkey has been discussing over a “buffer area” to prevent the Kurds in Syria who are on the point of achieving historical opportunities and positions. However, even such a great hostility cannot prevent the march of Kurds. Turkey’s intervention in Syria will turn the whole region into a bedlam and make Turkey the greatest loser. This is certain!
*Do you think the language of Interior Minister Ýdris Naim Þahin, who is often discussed on the media for his weird and racist statements, could be a secret kind of the Prime Minister’s pro-war language?
- Everyone complains about Þahin but the Prime Minister is the real person to be discussed and criticized. However, some columnists who warn and criticize us in terms of our language and manner pay no attention when it is the Prime Minister in question. This is an opportunist approach as they indirectly make themselves heard by the PM by means of criticizing Þahin!
It is a matter of practices, not language and manner alone. How good would it be to talk gently in an environment where 30-40 people are arrested and 15-20 people are killed each day? This is matter of the way of governance and enacting. The Prime Minister’s language is compatible with these implementations.
The Prime Minister has displayed a dreadful approach by continually “thanking” to police when they have killed civilian Kurdish citizens, as in Roboski, or guerrillas who are the children of Kurds. He thanks police for beating Kurds and not allowing them to gather, march and celebrate their day but he later turns to us and says to “condemn the PKK”!... He can’t tell us to “condemn” while extending his thanks to soldier and police who arrest, kill and beat Kurds every day!
What a political morality, conscience, contradiction and discrimination is this! Moreover, it is the Prime Minister of the country who does it…
Extending thanks and encouraging for more when Kurdish young people and women are killed in mass; and raise hell when soldiers or police officers are killed! This is the policy and language of war.
A Prime Minister cannot act in this way. He is supposed to give an effort, make calls and produce policies to end deaths. The PM should follow the policy of peace so that we can object to deaths and killings.
* Three trials have been held in the case of 12 September. However, Kenan Evren and Tahsin Þahinkaya weren’t brought to the trials. Still, some circles evaluated the trial as an important step, while others pointed out that this trial was a show of the government. It was especially the tortured victims of 12 September who found the trial inadequate. How do you evaluate this case?
- It makes no sense to put forward some formal amendments as “Revolution”, as done many times along the ten-year AKP government. We know that all these amendments were made to serve for the nation state mindset and update of its structure. Furthermore, the AKP has failed the examination of real democracy, the Kurdish issue that is.
It is a true AKP policy to judge two people involved in the coup while all institutions and implementations of this coup are still kept alive. This is a deception. That is why the trial has not given any hope or emotion to anyone.
Whom will they deceive with this theatral trial while specially authorized courts, anti-terror law, Turkish penal code, law on political parties, High Education Board and the 12 September coup constitution still remain in effect in a way worse than earlier?
The only thing the AKP does is the restoration of the state!
The AKP government is a typical 12 September government with Islamic identity.
I would also like to put emphasis that; As I said earlier, Turkey is rapidly heading towards political fragmentation. Turkey has got two fronts of politics now; one is the Islamic-nationalist front which consists of the AKP, the Community, majority of the CHP, the MHP and the green capital. And the other side is the anti-nationalist and anti-militarist democracy front which consists of different colors and proportions and is leaded by Kurds. All opponent leftist, socialist and democratic circles are included in this front.
The political and ideological conflict of the coming period will be lived between these fronts. And the war in Kurdistan will be a part of that.
Tuðluk warned that “Turkey is rapidly heading towards a political fragmentation” and pointed out that the state has only two choices; “either to solve the problems through justice or to continue with physical and political slaughter. There is no third way.”
* The New Strategy plan has been whispered to the public opinion in the recent term. It later came out that this plan was based on exclusion of negotiations like those made in Oslo and Imralý. Is it possible to reach a solution with strategies that refuse to come to the table with the answerers of the problem?
- It is not worth taking this discussion seriously. Nobody should deceive himself as there is no solution in question. A state and a government which risks war to prevent the Kurds in Syria from gaining a right and status can do anything “inside”. As a matter of fact, we have recently experienced the first practices of this approach; the Roboski slaughter, the attack targeting Ahmet Türk, the KCK arrests out of control, the attacks against the people in Newroz events etc. As seen, they may target everyone and do everything.
* Unless the AKP government negotiates with Öcalan, will it be possible to end the war and to open ways for a solution to the Kurdish question?
- The government is following the same strategy in the issue of Öcalan too. The state should make a decision now as it cannot continue to hold Öcalan in this position. It cannot go on like this!
The isolation of Öcalan aims not to exclude but to include him into the equation as the government intends to ensure the “sustainability of the deadlock” by means of Öcalan. This is what they call “using Öcalan” and the reason why the isolation is applied so severely with imposition and extortion that have made Öcalan fade from the scene, saying that “he wouldn’t let the government use him”. He resists against extortion and says that he can only step in the process to enable a fair solution. This is what reversed the state’s strategy and made them turn towards isolation with anger.
Öcalan, even if he is allowed, won’t see his family and lawyers in this process as the matter has gone beyond the routine relationship and communication. By refusing to see his brother who went to visit him, Öcalan stopped the state’s isolation being a means of pressure. Now, there is a resistance which only aims negotiation condition for a fair and honorable peace. I should remind that Öcalan is the “thin ice” between Kurds and Turks, and between Turkey and Kurdistan. Should there be a separation, it will be take place as a result of the negative approach towards Öcalan. Or, should there be a togetherness, equality and freedom, it will also come true as a result of a positive approach towards him. The Öcalan issue is such a fragile and determinative case.
The Kurdish question can only be solved over Öcalan, all other ways will be nothing but a loss…
*How realistic are the arguments the government has put forward in terms of interlocution?
-The Kurdish political movement has already made this discussion clear and announced that Öcalan, Kandil and BDP are the answerers of the problem. Each side has a different role, mission, area as well as an agreed solution schedule.
However, if the AKP insists on looking for parties, persons and groups that stand against PKK and Öcalan, it should for once try coming to the table and finding a solution to the Kurdish issue with them. There are already many formations in this position, even within the AKP itself. If it can, it should negotiate with them, without forcing BDP to do and to be something else. They should try this way and solve the problem if they think they could!
As our identity, line, principles, values and solution program are all definite; we could make negotiations if they want to. However, they shouldn’t try to subject us to impositions, insults, slanders and preconditions…
It should be respected that the BDP doesn’t contrary to its people, values and principles. They should accept us as we are, which means to respect their addressees. Our agenda focuses on a struggle for a solution. The Democratic Kurdish politics doesn’t only expect a solution and voice its demands but also gives a struggle for a solution. We could together discuss and reach a solution with the AKP if it also has such an agenda. However, I am saying from an objective perspective that the AKP government doesn’t even intend to form a solution program because of the fact that they think the Kurdish problem doesn’t exist. They could easily ensure a solution if they had well intended approaches. I am sorry but peace will not arrive this spring…
* How do you evaluate Prime Minister Erdoðan’s policy for intervention in Syria and forming a buffer area?
- We could have already ensured a very different ground and level in the Kurdish issue by now if the Turkish state practiced half of the “reforms” it imposes on Syria. It says that “security cannot be prior to reforms” and tell Syria to “draw its army and tanks away from the cities” and to “make a new constitution, to pave the way for freedoms, to change the system and to ensure right and justice”. Could a country ever be in such a great contradiction to itself? All those Turkey proposes Syria are right and fair demands but in this case
won’t people tell Turkey to do the same things itself? Indeed, this is what Syrian and even Iraqi authorities tell Erdoðan to do.
One third of the Turkish army is positioned in Kurdistan. Moreover, the state has also formed a police presence which is also as powerful as the army. These security forces don’t allow ten people to come together, they use tear gas, sticks and arms when the others are not enough. They disperse, beat and kill people. they take tens of thousands of people into custody and arrest thousands of them. Pressures, violations and prohibitions equally good to fascism have already become usual things. There is a one-man and one-party government in effect.
What is the difference actually between Syria and Turkey? Aren’t both countries the same in terms of their essence and forms? Erdoðan is becoming an Assad and Turkey a Syria in the eye of Kurds. The government cannot deceive anybody with demagogy.
Turkey has been discussing over a “buffer area” to prevent the Kurds in Syria who are on the point of achieving historical opportunities and positions. However, even such a great hostility cannot prevent the march of Kurds. Turkey’s intervention in Syria will turn the whole region into a bedlam and make Turkey the greatest loser. This is certain!
*Do you think the language of Interior Minister Ýdris Naim Þahin, who is often discussed on the media for his weird and racist statements, could be a secret kind of the Prime Minister’s pro-war language?
- Everyone complains about Þahin but the Prime Minister is the real person to be discussed and criticized. However, some columnists who warn and criticize us in terms of our language and manner pay no attention when it is the Prime Minister in question. This is an opportunist approach as they indirectly make themselves heard by the PM by means of criticizing Þahin!
It is a matter of practices, not language and manner alone. How good would it be to talk gently in an environment where 30-40 people are arrested and 15-20 people are killed each day? This is matter of the way of governance and enacting. The Prime Minister’s language is compatible with these implementations.
The Prime Minister has displayed a dreadful approach by continually “thanking” to police when they have killed civilian Kurdish citizens, as in Roboski, or guerrillas who are the children of Kurds. He thanks police for beating Kurds and not allowing them to gather, march and celebrate their day but he later turns to us and says to “condemn the PKK”!... He can’t tell us to “condemn” while extending his thanks to soldier and police who arrest, kill and beat Kurds every day!
What a political morality, conscience, contradiction and discrimination is this! Moreover, it is the Prime Minister of the country who does it…
Extending thanks and encouraging for more when Kurdish young people and women are killed in mass; and raise hell when soldiers or police officers are killed! This is the policy and language of war.
A Prime Minister cannot act in this way. He is supposed to give an effort, make calls and produce policies to end deaths. The PM should follow the policy of peace so that we can object to deaths and killings.
* Three trials have been held in the case of 12 September. However, Kenan Evren and Tahsin Þahinkaya weren’t brought to the trials. Still, some circles evaluated the trial as an important step, while others pointed out that this trial was a show of the government. It was especially the tortured victims of 12 September who found the trial inadequate. How do you evaluate this case?
- It makes no sense to put forward some formal amendments as “Revolution”, as done many times along the ten-year AKP government. We know that all these amendments were made to serve for the nation state mindset and update of its structure. Furthermore, the AKP has failed the examination of real democracy, the Kurdish issue that is.
It is a true AKP policy to judge two people involved in the coup while all institutions and implementations of this coup are still kept alive. This is a deception. That is why the trial has not given any hope or emotion to anyone.
Whom will they deceive with this theatral trial while specially authorized courts, anti-terror law, Turkish penal code, law on political parties, High Education Board and the 12 September coup constitution still remain in effect in a way worse than earlier?
The only thing the AKP does is the restoration of the state!
The AKP government is a typical 12 September government with Islamic identity.
I would also like to put emphasis that; As I said earlier, Turkey is rapidly heading towards political fragmentation. Turkey has got two fronts of politics now; one is the Islamic-nationalist front which consists of the AKP, the Community, majority of the CHP, the MHP and the green capital. And the other side is the anti-nationalist and anti-militarist democracy front which consists of different colors and proportions and is leaded by Kurds. All opponent leftist, socialist and democratic circles are included in this front.
The political and ideological conflict of the coming period will be lived between these fronts. And the war in Kurdistan will be a part of that.
