Kurdish youth should not resort to fatal methods of protest such as self-immolation, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) said in a statement following the passing of Mehmet Akar, a young man who set himself on fire earlier in the week in Turkey’s southeastern Diyarbakır (Amed) province.
Akar left a note that said his final act was meant as a protest against the continued isolation of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan, who has been serving a life sentence in a northwestern Turkish island since 1999 and has not been able to contact the outside world since March 2021.
“It is our duty as a people and a movement to uphold the memory of martyrs who represent a great love of the country and loyalty to the Kurdistan freedom cause and Leader Apo and carry their fight into victory,” Kurdish-focused news agency ANF cited the KCK as saying on Wednesday.
“Leader Apo has clearly stated in the past that he deeply values such manifestation of willpower, but he does not approve of such actions. He believes more creative and diverse protests should take the place of such actions. The Kurdish people and Kurdish youth should consider this an order and act accordingly,” the group said.
Akar set himself on fire on Monday, days after 65-year-old Veysi Taş did the same in the neighbouring Mardin (Mêrdîn) province. There have been several protests in the past demanding freedom for Öcalan.
The KCK also addressed the past controversy Akar had been involved in, saying his experiences have “clearly demonstrated the provocations and special warfare against the Kurdish people” by the Turkish government.
Akar’s family was involved in a long-standing protest in front of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) offices in Diyarbakır, where several local families accused the party of helping the PKK “abduct” their adult children. When his family claimed he had been abducted in 2019, Akar came out and said he had run away from home because his family was forcing him into a marriage he did not want.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu “resort to such tricks not because they think of the Kurdish youth, but so they give up their cause for freedom, stop defending their language, culture and identity, and accept genocide”, the KCK continued. “These policies aim to make people give up Kurdishness and accept to become Turkish.”
“The fascist Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) government is responsible for all injustice, corruption and desolation in Turkey. All patriots, democrats, socialists, defenders of freedom and all who believe in human dignity should speak up against this and pose a strong stance,” the KCK said. “All should mobilise against the isolation of Leader Apo, not just the Kurdish people but all persons from Turkey who do not march in line with the AKP-MHP fascism and hold humanity’s values.”
The KCK concluded with a call for a “heightened fight to tear down the fascist AKP-MHP regime and to construct a democratic Turkey”.
