Medya News
Subscribe
  • Home
  • All News
  • Opinion
  • Kurdistan
  • Women
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
  • More
    • Audio Articles
    • Economy
    • Culture & Art
    • Ecology
    • Newsletter
    • Daily Review
Youtube
PODCAST
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • All News
  • Opinion
  • Kurdistan
  • Women
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
  • More
    • Audio Articles
    • Economy
    • Culture & Art
    • Ecology
    • Newsletter
    • Daily Review
Youtube
PODCAST
No Result
View All Result
Medya News

HDP: Kobani was not an exception

9:09 am 10/06/2022
A A
HDP: Kobani was not an exception
Share this
FacebookTwitterRedditEmailLinkedInWhatsApp

Honorary President of the Peoples’ Democratic Party of Turkey Ertuğrul Kürkçü, Medya News’ author, wrote an article on the struggle for peace, democracy, and solidarity with the Kurdish people in the Progressive International on 8 June.

HDP: Kobani was not an exception

Ankara believes that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has opened a window of opportunity in its century-long war with the northern Kurds by expanding its influence beyond the borders of the Turkish Republic.

The Erdoğan regime hopes to deepen its exploitation of the United Nations Security Council’s 2015 call for an “international alliance” directly against ISIS and al-Nusra. It mobilised that appeal to assault the Kurdish autonomous governments in Syria and Iraq that the Kurds had won through their fight against ISIS.

Since 2016, Turkey has occupied Êfrin, Gîre Sıpî, Serekanî and Jarablus. It has at least 5,000 troops in Syria to establish a 30 kilometre deep “security belt”, in agreement with Russia and the US. In Idlib, it maintains troops at 12 observation posts as part of the so-called “demilitarization” of jihadist forces. In Iraq, it has at least 2,500 troops, mainly to provide military training to the Peshmerga of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Erdoğan’s war on the Kurds is not new but in practice it differs from previous Turkish governments’ prosecution of the war in two ways, which gives it a distinctive feature.

First, Erdoğan relies on military action abroad in Southern and Western Kurdistan to produce consent for his rule at home. If Turkey once had any real goal of solving the “Kurdish Question”, it has been completely lost in this process. As such, Ankara, with its strategy of “defeating” the Kurds and “ending” the problem, has spread the war beyond Turkey’s borders, to all places where Kurds live, internationalising the conflict as never before in history. The inevitable consequence of this “protracted war” has been to construct a “Sunni-Turkish autocracy” — a form of fascism — that is innovation in state practice.

Secondly, in the last 10 years of Erdoğan’s rule, Turkey has developed a “military-industrial complex” — a group of capitalists that particularly benefits from war with the help of the state — whose narrow interests have been placed above those of capital as a whole.

Yaşar Yakış, the Foreign Minister of the first AKP government in 2002, believes that the ongoing cross-border operations in Northern Iraq, which tend to expand into Northern Syria, may also be related to gaining an advantage for the upcoming general elections as part of the Erdoğan regime’s power strategy. As he has argued, “when a government has such an opportunity, it does not want to lose it. As the saying goes, the stars in the sky align once in 287 years. If the stars come together like this for Turkey once in 287 years, they may want to take advantage of it. Every country wants to take advantage of such an opportunity.”

In 2014, Erdoğan sensed an opportunity when ISIS spread out of Iraq to invade the areas on the Syrian side of the border where Kurds and Arabs live. While the hearts of 20 million Kurds living in Turkey were with the resistance to ISIS’ siege of Kobani on the Syrian side of the border, Erdoğan prematurely celebrated the Islamist’s victory. In the Turkish border town of Islahiye he said, “There, Kobani has fallen and is falling.” He hoped to break the Rojava resistance’s resolve and called on the United Nations to stop airstrikes against ISIS.

But Erdoğan’s hostile attitude fueled an unprecedented mood of rebellion among the Kurds of the North. Turkey’s secular and democratic forces were stirred into action and international solidarity was galvanised. All told, the flow of freedom fighters from all over the world to Rojava only accelerated. The resistance grew in strength and defeated ISIS. Rojava set an historic example of struggle based on free, autonomous self-government.

This process shook Turkey’s political status quo. The international solidarity of Turkey’s democratic forces and the West’s democrats and human rights defenders with the Rojava revolution played a pivotal role in breaking the alliance between Erdoğan’s AKP with ISIS and political Islam in general.

This moment forged the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as a cohesive political force. Turkey’s democratic, socialist, feminist and Alevis political forces formed a social and spiritual partnership with the Kurds in the face of the apocalyptic future represented by ISIS. The HDP became a third pole in Turkish politics, breaking the binary between Turkish nationalist authoritarianism and Islamist politics. In the June 2015 general election, HDP’s advance forced a hung parliament, taking away Erdoğan’s majority.

For the last seven years, against this background, Erdoğan has been fighting against the Kurdish people and Turkish democracy with the aim of institutionalising fascism at home and colonialism abroad to resurrect the collapsed Turkish-Islamic status quo. The dynamic has turned a domestic war into a regional one.

Today, those who take part in the international solidarity mission to Erbil to draw the world’s attention to these colonialist expansionist ambitions, can confidently tread in the footsteps of the great breakthrough of 2014. The solidarity that destroyed ISIS, raised Kurdish hopes in all four parts of Kurdistan and frustrated Erdoğan’s cruel calculations was not an accident. It was a necessary consequence of the forward flow of history.

We succeeded that day. Solidarity succeeded. We can do it again.

Share this
FacebookTwitterRedditEmailLinkedInWhatsApp
Tags: Trending

Related Posts

Nation Alliance manifesto deficient on Kurdish Issue, says HDP MP

Nation Alliance manifesto deficient on Kurdish Issue, says HDP MP

January 30, 2023
Imprisoned HDP co-chair: Women’s legitimacy can overcome strongholds of oppressive power

Imprisoned HDP co-chair: Women’s legitimacy can overcome strongholds of oppressive power

January 30, 2023
Amnesty calls on Iran to quash death sentences of young protesters

Amnesty calls on Iran to quash death sentences of young protesters

January 30, 2023
Medya News Daily Review: 30 January 2023

Medya News Daily Review: 30 January 2023

January 30, 2023
Öcalan’s Italian lawyer Angelelli: Humanity must protect this extraordinary person

Öcalan’s Italian lawyer Angelelli: Humanity must protect this extraordinary person

January 30, 2023
Blinken: Ground offensive into northern Syria will do ‘tremendous damage’ to civilians

Blinken: Ground offensive into northern Syria will do ‘tremendous damage’ to civilians

January 30, 2023

Videos

Medya News Daily Review: 30 January 2023
DAILYSHOW

Medya News Daily Review: 30 January 2023

January 30, 2023

All News

Nation Alliance manifesto deficient on Kurdish Issue, says HDP MP

Imprisoned HDP co-chair: Women’s legitimacy can overcome strongholds of oppressive power

Amnesty calls on Iran to quash death sentences of young protesters

Medya News Daily Review: 30 January 2023

Öcalan’s Italian lawyer Angelelli: Humanity must protect this extraordinary person

Blinken: Ground offensive into northern Syria will do ‘tremendous damage’ to civilians

Medya News

Impressum

About us

Privacy Policy

Subscribe
Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • All News
  • Opinion
  • Kurdistan
  • Women
  • World
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
  • Ecology
  • Economy
  • Culture & Art
  • Daily Show
  • Newsletter
  • Authors
  • Podcast

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT

Add New Playlist

Loading
Contact