Ferda Çetin
“The responsibility of standing up and speaking out falls to certain individuals to tell the facts about the world to billions of half-anaesthetized people under the narcosis of the ‘Free World’. The world and humanity are lucky that there have been such people in all periods of history, all around the world,” writes Ferda Çetin for Yeni Özgür Politika.
It’s been a while now that concepts like ‘capitalism’ and ‘imperialism’ have been out of use. In their place, they have discovered ‘cuter’ terms. They say ‘free market economy’ or ‘globalisation’ instead.
The words ‘free’ amd ‘globalisation’ sound more ‘friendly’ than ‘capitalism’ and ‘imperialism.’ The words ‘capital’ and ‘imperial’ are the culpable concepts of our times: concepts that lead people to think of ‘awful things.’
They start talking in such a positive tone that you would think that the imperialist expansionism called ‘globalisation’ has eliminated all the wrongs and injustices in the world, and offered people equal opportunities and a rights and justice system, based on equality.
The positivists present ‘globalisation’ as the universal form of ‘development’ and ‘freedom.’ They don’t say anything about how the US, Britain and Europe have been ruling the ‘global village.’ They turn a blind eye to how the people in these countries are living a life of isolation in their closed local communities, ignorant of what’s actually happening in the world outside.
While billions of victims of the ‘global paradise’ do not wonder where their wealth is coming from, they also don’t have any idea about how many countries have been destroyed, how many people have been forced out of their homelands, what great atrocities have been committed for the things they own under the name of ‘welfare.’
The responsibility of standing up and speaking out falls to certain individuals to tell the facts about the world to billions of half-anaesthetized people under the narcosis of the ‘Free World’.
The world and the humanity are lucky that there have been such people in all periods of history, all around the world.
So, what’s this introduction for?
It’s to start telling you about the call made by a thousand courageous individuals from 30 countries across four continents of the world.
“The Turkish state has been carrying on with its genocidal attempts, its policies of denial and assimilation in Kurdistan, one of the lands mostly effected by war and human tragedies. The Turkish state and the Erdoğan administration have been legitimizing every sort of state violence under the pretext of the ‘war against terror.'”
The Turkish state, which does not recognise the natural and legitimate rights of the Kurdish people, accuses the pro-Kurdish parties with represention in the Turkish parliament, the MPs, the co-mayors, with ‘terrorist organisation affiliation.’ Three thousand members of the academy who had criticised the state’s Kurdish policy were expelled from the universities with the accusation that they had ‘supported the terrorist organisation.’ Hundreds of journalists have been indicted and jailed for ‘terrorist organisation membership and propaganda.’
The PYD [Democratic Union Party], QSD [Syrian Democratic Forces], YPG [People’s Defence Units] and YPJ [Women’s Defence Units] in Rojava [North and East Syria], who defeated ISIS [the Islamic State], an enemy of humanity, and who constitute a part of the international coalition, have been accused of partnering with the PKK [the Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and ‘terrorism.’ The Turkish state occupied Rojava under the pretext of ‘fighting with terrorism’ and the Turkish army deployed ISIS elements in Afrin, Serêkanîyê [Ras al-Ayn] and Grê Spî [Tell Abyad].
The Erdoğan administration has bombed the UN-assisted Makhmur Refugee Camp numerous times and caused fatalities in the camp. Turkey claims that this camp of 15,000 civilians is a ‘terrorist camp.’ Likewise, the Yazidi Kurds in Shengal (Sinjar) have been bombed by Turkish war planes systematically.
Twenty nine prominent intellectuals, writers and political figures, who are aware of such reckless attacks by the Turkish state, had formed the ‘International Initiative: Justice for Kurds’ for solidarity with the Kurdish people.
This initiative called upon all the intellectuals in the world on 5 November 2021 to stand up against false accusations of ‘terror’ and ‘terrorism’ and to support the de-listing of the PKK from the list of ‘terrorist groups.’
One thousand intellectuals, writers, politicians and academics from various countries responded to this call on 13 December, and made a new public call to the entire world. ‘In defence of peace, democracy and human rights, we call for the de-listing of the PKK from the European Union’s list of terrorist groups,’ they stated.
The call hasn’t been made by the Kurds in Kurdistan but by the intellectuals in countries where the PKK has been banned. This is the truly important and precious aspect of the call.
If there had been a public survey or a referendum, the Kurdish people would, by a great majority, express support for the PKK as a ‘freedom movement’ and they would refuse to recognise the bans by the US and the EU.
The one thousand individuals who are aware of this fact have demanded that the US, England and the EU show respect for the political will of the Kurdish people. It is a call for the termination of all political and military attacks against the PKK, which is regarded as the vanguard and representative of the people in Kurdistan.
The call addresses all countries that accuse the Kurdish people’s freedom movement of ‘terrorism,’ including the US, England, Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Denmark and Norway.
The call insists upon the termination of the defamation campaign that was launched in the 1990s for the sake of maintaining ‘political and economic relations’ with the Turkish state.
The call by the thousand individuals is a call for reversing the PKK ban that had been initiated by the Swedish deep state and Swedish intelligence on 28 February 1986, the day Olof Palme was assassinated.
It is a call demanding the abolition of a ban which was initiated by Germany calling also the entire European continent to act on 26 November 1993, and which has gradually turned into a ‘hostility’ against Kurds.
The thousand individuals, all renowned in their own fields, have called upon the US and the EU to correct a mistake and to terminate their complicity in the crimes of Turkey.
It is a call for ending the policies imposed by a global hegemony and the policy of establishing control over the free political will of the Kurdish people.