Middle East – Africa - page 33

In the last days, the Turkish government has been carrying out a wide repressive operation against civilians, parties and kurdish guerrillas.

Such an intensity of bombings has not been experienced in years. A double attack was carried out against both the workstations of PKK guerrillas and the villages of civilians. It is obvious that Erdogan has decided to intervene both in Turkey and the rest of the Middle East, by attacking all those components that try and advance democratic instances. Why this escalation of events? Mainly for what purpose?

Young people, university students, male and female workers, militants of the lgbt movement, together with the Kurdish movements gathered on the streets against an oppressive and increasingly authoritarian government. The prompt response of the government consisted in breaking into houses, arresting, killing people on the streets, forbid everything and militarily attacking groups of people. Turkish people know the meaning of military coup. In this case, it was a political coupe of the State, since the decisions concerning military operations were taken illegally, without the coverage of a government. During the last general elections held on June 7, Erdogan’s party, the Akp, has experience a significant reduction in its consent, showing that it has politically lost in the Middle East, and thus losing even his image in front of the whole world. It is now evident that the response of Erdogan to electoral defeat is, once again, a strong repression. Almost two months have passed since the elections but the Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has not yet found allies to form a new government. This makes the position of Erdogan even more weak, who is nevertheless, taking advantage of the absence of a government, and continues to take illegal decisions in a rebel and a fascist way. In seeking approval, since it is impossible the impasse and form a new government soon Turkey will go back to the elections, and the goal is to once again push the Kurds into a corner, labeling them as “terrorists” , weakening the HDP.

However the resistance inside and outside Turkey is very strong, since the Kurdish pepole are accustomed to rise up against repression as they have already shown. On the one hand the HDP has received broad electoral support, surpassing by three points the hideous 10% threshold to enter the parliament; on the other hand, the PKK has demonstrated to the world that they are the only force able to stop ISIS (Daesh) in the Middle East. While regular armies have left the field to ISIS, guerrilla forces intervened rescuing thousands of civilians, regardless of ethnicity and religion, protecting the entire population. Hence his continued growth of popular support inside and outside Turkey. Erdogan is realizing this fact and is fearing the consequences.

And what about the peace process that was taking place between Ocalan and the Turkish state and the Turkish government, and that in the last few months has finally got to a stopping point isolating Ocalan in the last 4 months. The AKP has always used the negotiations with the Kurds to offer Europe an image of openness and tolerance; in reality its policy aimed at trying to divide the Kurdish movement and the positions of Öcalan from guerrilla forces and the Kurdish refugees in Europe, in order to divide it and weaken it. Since it failed to crush the movement with the arms, he tried to do it politically by exploiting the contradictions inherent to any peace process.

Furthermore, let’s not forget that the AKP has never recognized the revolution in Rojava and denied status for the Kurdish people, who are trying to implement the so-called “democratic autonomy”. Instead, he tried to destroy it, by financing and allowing ISIS to move freely within and through its borders. The AKP plans have failed because of Kobane’s victory and the pushing of ISIS out of Rojava. Often news about the increasingly blatant connivance between the Turkish secret services and ISIS, spread both inside and outside of Turkey.

On July 20, 32 young socialists from the largest cities in Turkey were killed in the town near the Turkish -Syrian border of Suruc. Suruc is well-known for being the village where international support was given to the resistance of Kobane. Thousands of activists from around the world, many even from Italy, went right to Suruc to offer support and help, while the guerrillas in kobane resisted against the attack carried out by ISIS. That’s why these 32 young socialists were in Suruc on July 20. They wanted to continue to give support to the reconstruction of Kobane. Using this attack as a pretext, the turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu has decided to take military action, justifying this decision with the danger represented by ISIS, and bombing its stations. Nothing but false and hypocritical propaganda. In the last two days of operation, the attack on the ISIS lasted 13 minutes at the most. And the stations attacked were empty. Someone had perhaps warned them?

On July 24 the bombing operation against the Kurdish guerrillas started in the mountains in the defense area of Medya. July 24 is an unlucky day for the Kurds since on the same day in 1923 in Lausanne, they witnessed the division of Kurdistan into four parts: Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Turkish F-16s took off five minutes after midnight from the cities of Diyarbakir and Batman and dropped bombs all night long on the regions of Zap, Basyan, Gare, Avasin and Metina. The planes then hit Xinere and Kandil and many villages of civilians in the region. Some areas were hit three times in the same night. At the same time, a wide repressive operation was carried out in Turkey. It had the same magnitude than the one that was carried out in 2009, known as “KCK operation”, that led to the arrest of about 700 Democrats across the country and resulted in the killing of the 21 year old Abdullah Özdal in the city ​​of Cizre (Turkey). All these events, in a very delicate moment when the prime minister is still trying to form a new government, smell like “strategy of tension”. Taking advantage of the political vacuum, the AKP continues undisturbed its policy of annihilation of the Kurds. And that even with the support of Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region (Iraq), who is issuing statements condemning the Turkish bombings but basically turns out to be a spokesman for Erdogan and the AKP in southern Kurdistan, endorsing the game division of the Kurds. Exposing, among other things his country and putting his people at risk of becoming the “backyard” of Turkey, hoping for a formal recognition of the Kurdistan region while Erdogan’s real goal is exploiting its wealth and politically and economically controlling it. The policy of the AKP is therefore increasingly clear and desperate. Its policies in the Middle East have failed, that is why it is trying to regain a role that it no longer has, because the revolution of Rojava showed that no policy without or against the Kurds will succeed in the Middle East.

All countries that somehow are interested and / or involved in the Middle East policies change strategy according to their own interests. But Turkey insists on not changing and tries to continue as if it was still at the time of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey did not understand that the world has changed, the role of Turkey is no longer the one it had in the past: It cannot survive with the policies and “tricks” used by the Ottomans, rather this would lead the country to total failure. Society is changing. The boundaries are changing.

The only possible way out is to democratize Turkey and resolve all issues with all the people who live there, this is what Ocalan has been trying to pursue with the peace process. Meanwhile it is clear that the Kurdish guerrillas will not stay and watch, and they will continue their fight against ISIS in Rojava (since they showed they can stop them), and in Turkey against repression and bombings. They will continue to fight against this policy of the AKP that is taking Turkey into a marsh. They will continue to carry out the revolution in Rojava since it is the only solution for the people in the Middle East. The will continue to express their protest in all the cities in the world, as it happened for example in 15 cities in Italy or in 22 cities in Germany, or Japan, India, France, after the attack on Suruc. Kurds are accustomed to resist and will no longer bend, nor they would let anybody use them for the games of the great powers as had happened in the past.

Now the revolution has begun and has no boundaries. Especially those artificial boundaries that were decided in Lausanne without consulting the people. Then the audience should break the silence! The Kurds will no longer accept slavery. No bombing will break them ..

These bombings beyond the Turkish border are a violation of international law. International forces, with their democratic solidarity have had an important role in stopping the spreading of Isis in the Middle East. Let’s not forget that the AKP is another face of ISIS. It is important to act immediately to put an end to this policy of the Turkish state.