The ‘Respect for Will March’, initiated in response to the appointment of a trustee to Hakkari (Colemêrg) Municipality on 3 June, has reached its eighth day, with marchers continuing their journey through Zap Valley, south of Kurdish-majority city of Hakkari in southeast Turkey. This march, organised by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party, protests the Turkish government’s practice of appointing trustees to replace elected Kurdish mayors, undermining Kurdish self-governance.
Following breakfast, demonstrators held a gathering where DEM Party MP Mahmut Dindar addressed the group, emphasising the need to end the current isolation policy imposed on Abdullah Öcalan in İmrali Prison and engage in dialogue with him to resolve the Kurdish question. “We have been on the road for over a week against the usurpation of our people’s will. Protests are ongoing throughout Kurdistan and Turkey against this injustice. We know that the root of all these issues is isolation. This must end. Mr. Öcalan must be engaged in dialogue. There is no other solution,” Dindar stated.
After the speech, the march resumed with participants chanting slogans such as “Long live the resistance of Colemêrg” (Bijî berxwedana Colemêrgê) and “Long live the resistance of the prisoners” (Bijî berxwedana zindanan). The demonstrators covered a distance of five kilometres before taking a break, during which some received treatment for blisters.
The marchers are expected to continue their journey towards Hakkari in their quest to overturn the trustee appointments and restore the elected administration.
This march is part of a broader movement against the Turkish government’s policy of trusteeship, where elected Kurdish mayors are replaced with government-appointed officials. This policy has been seen as an effort to undermine Kurdish autonomy and is linked to the broader Kurdish issue in Turkey, including the imprisonment and isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
