Akın Olgun
Kurds are once again being tested in every sense and in every field in Turkey. A circle of fire is being lit around them. As they overcome traps set up for them to deny their freedom, new ones are laid.
Mountains, cities, towns and villages are being besieged. The alliance of evil, prepared to destroy them from outside and within, does not attack them directly but works from the sidelines. The one who betrays people’s freedom is making soldiers salute oppressors at the outset.
Death rains down from ambushes in all places where freedom exists. Corpses are desecreated. Bodies are being removed from their graves. Tombstones are being destroyed. Those who protest are removed and executed in the darkness. Death and slaughter is the plan for the Kurds.
Kurdish writers, journalists, municipality chairs, deputies, party executives who were elected are being taken away from their houses during midnight raids and being imprisoned. All these events are taking place before everyone’s eyes, yet are being legitimized through the silence of those who act as if nothing has taken place. The anguished cries of poor children who are run over by the panzers sold by the western countries are not heard. The west is not interested in these facts.
Warplanes, purchased from the west, are dropping bombs on Kurds amidst the screams of mothers who have to collect their children’s mortal remains. The west is not interested in this fact because the values of weapons sales determines the level of sensitivity to what is happening. They overcome headaches by issuing statements of concern and they relax by “appeals to democracy” till they have to issue another statement of “concern”. The president of Turkey, meanwhile, shouts that: “There is no Kurdish question”. Stating that “woman or child, the necessary will be done”, he approves torture and unlawfulness and advances militarism.
The ones who ruled the country before him replied to criticisms against summary executions carried out by police and soldiers by saying: “Do not impugn the police and soldiers”. Today, as the Kurds are being slaughtered, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says: “Woman or child, the necessary will be done”. The Kurds’ language is being recorded on formal documents as an “unknown language”. Even as footage of torture in police stations is released on social media and torture reports detail these realities, chauvinistic discourses patriotically referring to “our martyred soldiers” seek to cover this up and are used to protect the torturers.
Two Kurdish villagers have reportedly been abducted from their village by military helicopter and they have been lynched by a mob of hundreds of soldiers. One has died after going into a coma and another has escaped death.
Despite this, the country seemingly does not even murmur any protest. The opposition in the country is avoiding its responsibility by pretending that nothing has happened or is happening. It keeps silent and turns its back from what is happening. Those who raise their voices in protest are being threatened. Lawsuits are being filed against them. There are attempts to make them regret the day they were born: they are subjected to official tyranny that affects every aspect of their lives.
Europe, meanwhile, still only expresses “concern”. Public opinion in the west calls these official pronouncements “unacceptable” yet again. The attitude of Turkey’s public opinion is unclear, however, regarding the targeting of the opposition, especially the weakest sections.
Returning to the what was stated earlier:
Those who ambush the Kurds who try to preserve their will and freedom are sacrificing them to the gods of fascism. Those who are targeting people’s freedom and who are doing it for political and economical advantage, leave only blood and tears behind them. Lives are being taken even as authorities elsewhere continue to state their “concern” over these “ unacceptable” events (without practically acting to address these concerns).
Yes, the Kurds are once more being tested by oppression. And, of course, our humanity is being tested as well.
