A group of international academics, lawyers, trade unionists and activists travelled to Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast as election observers to witness the country’s epochal elections to be held on 14 May. In a series of articles to be published every day by Medya News leading up the elections, members of the UK delegation share the international election observers delegations’ findings from the ground.
Anne Ohne
We witnessed the excitement for change across Bakur and the feeling of defeat after the elections. As a member of our delegation noted the evening before the elections: “I am writing this on the eve of what is globally understood to be a historic moment, but what is for the Kurdish people a crucial juncture in the ongoing Kurdish Freedom Movement. Today, the air is thick with excitement – and rain. The conversations we have had with hevals (comrades, or friends in the movement) and people have been overwhelmingly optimistic. There are celebration plans in place in the region I write from – Colemerg (Hakkari) in the very Eastern tip of Bakur, which sits high in the mountains, at the meeting point of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Rojava. But we have also spoken to hevals who have plans in place to flee, should the election go the other way.”
On the campaign trail it has been clear that this election was a huge push towards this moment of chance. The spirit of resistance, the joy in resistance, the endless belief in the struggle, and gallons upon gallons of cay have fuelled an unstoppable campaign trail. This culminated in huge rallies across Kurdistan. Our delegation member in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir) attended such a rally the day before the election and said: “The atmosphere was incredible. There was a stage with live Kurdish music and lots of govend (traditional dancing). The head of HDP, Selahattin Demirtaş, gave a speech from prison and people became quite tearful. Tensions were definitely heightened today. As soon as the demo finished, floods of police cleared the area, filtering people through to the main road. Sometimes preventing anyone from passing. Major intimidation tactics. They were lined all the way down the street to the YSP office in Ofis. I imagine many sleepless nights will be had tonight but spirits are high.”
The instability of Erdogan’s regime and the global condemnation of his despotic ideals, combined with a crashing economy and increasingly fascistic policy gave people hope that Erdogan would loose.
We travelled to Colemerg in a minibus with a severe oil leak, pulling into the side of the road every 20 kilometres or so on a 13 hour journey that could have been a 6 hour drive. The delegation, though, was in high spirits. As our route ascended further into the mountains, passing through checkpoints and past the visible signs of oppression the landscape is scarred with – watchtowers, military outposts, buildings damaged in decades of war – dusk drew in around us, and we arrived well into the night. Still, we were greeted by friends, food and cay.
After a night in our hotel, one half of our delegation headed to Gevor, even closer to the border and even higher into the mountains. This group visited a cemetery with one side dedicated to martyrs. A lot of them were killed in the city war in Gever (Yüksekova) in 2015/16. We were taken by the local peace mothers and told about their family members. They also told us that some martyrs were from Rojava and Rojhilatî Kurdistan, but they were unable to return the bodies. They said directly, “they are all of our martyrs, and we are all of their mothers”.
It is impossible to capture the stories everyone told us. Each grave of the martyrs has similar themes, with different details, different lives. One woman’s son was tortured to death age 19, then his body was not released quickly. Another woman’s son went to the mountains as a 14 year old and was martyred after five years. Others were imprisoned, then tortured, then later killed in the street as civilians, or while armed and defending their families against the fascism of the state. The mothers held us, kissed us, wiped their tears, and also chanted şehid namirin (the martyrs are immortal). In between the cemeteries we were in a private dolmuş (minibus) blasting welatparezî Kurdish music.
In Colemerg city, we heard from the co-chairs of the local branch of HDP about the situation they face in the city. The many struggles we encounter across the party membership exist here, but they face a particularly strong undercover policing operation. Using photographs from ID checks, young ‘handsome’ police officers find the social media accounts of young women and befriend them. They also interrogate their families, abusing their positions to find out where young women and teenagers hang out. This enables them to befriend the young women and to bring them into their power, often using drugs to control them. They are then forced into sex-work, or forced to act as informants for the welatparez families. The movement counter this with youth outreach, and with an extraordinary and proactive approach to engagement, having one-to-one conversations with as many young people as possible to hear their concerns and discuss the movement with them.
This election, as the parliamentary manifestation of the Kurdish freedom struggle, truly is part of the struggle of life or death for the friends we have met in our time here and Kurdish people all over. People we have spoken to today have told us they are willing to die for the movement. Because the alternative is unthinkable.
In the spirit of these conversations we started yesterday morning. During the day we were split into two groups and visited polling stations across the Hakkari district- witnessing military and police intimidation, several fraud attempts, and determined people.
In the evening while waiting for the results we celebrated at first, Colemerg has voted overwhelmingly for Yesil Sol Parti and Kemal Kilicdaroglu. But a look at the TV and the results being broadcasted saddened our mood- the constant repression, hate filled propaganda and blatant racism has shown its effect once again and Erdogan has received more votes than predicted.
Yet, the hevals around us have not given up, as one noted: “We have done our part for the development of democracy in Turkey and we will continue struggling”. People are reinforcing each other’s will to struggle, affirm each other that this is only a small part of a wider struggle that is strong and will never be defeated.
