Fréderike Geerdink
It was during the speech of DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan that I suddenly felt myself becoming emotional. The persistence with which he spoke and expressed the message of the Kurdish movement once again, while at the same time generously giving the floor to others as soon as he could, went straight to my heart. It’s exemplary of what the Kurdish movement has on offer: sanity and humanity in a world that is becoming impossible to bear.
Bakırhan was one of the many speakers at the annual conference the EU, Turkey and the Kurds, which was held for the 19th time this week. Like every year, also this time there were urgent developments in Turkey that demanded attention: the imprisonment of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and the mass protest that it triggered, combined with a possible peace process between the state and the PKK. How do these two developments relate to each other, and what is the DEM Party’s position?
Third way
Listening to the speakers, including Bakırhan, and based on conversations I had, amongst others with DEM Party MP Meral Danış Beştaş, I quickly concluded that the Kurdish movement had in no way deviated from its course. They steadily keep their ‘third way’ direction, being on the side of freedom and democracy. All the alliances they build are focused on one thing: solve the Kurdish issue and through that steer Turkey and Kurdistan (and the wider Middle East) towards democracy and rights for all.
This, of course, means that they are fiercely against the arrest of İmamoğlu. This position doesn’t hamper their efforts to push the government towards reforms and circumstances that will enable the armed Kurdish movement to lay down its arms, as proposed by jailed PKK leader Öcalan. That Erdoğan is clearly taking another direction by stifling the biggest opposition party and jailing Erdogan’s most important competitor, doesn’t mean DEM Party gives up on its goals. It insists even harder.
Secular brute
Now that that is clear, let’s focus on the bigger picture. And that is how admirable it is that there is this movement, decades old, which has a vision for the future that is utterly logical and remains unchanged amid all the rapid changes in the world. A fascist is running the US, extreme-right governments are taking over power in Europe, Erdoğan is becoming a full-blown dictator with his tentacles reaching as far as Damascus, where an Islamist has taken over from a secular brute, imperial dictator Putin insists on taking over Ukraine and who knows what else is on his menu, and the genocide against the Palestinians is ongoing without anybody doing anything about it. And what does the Kurdish movement propose? Freedom and equality.
In the light of global developments, that may sound naive. But it is not. On the contrary: it is the most logical position to have, especially in the state the world is in. Emphasizing that we are all humans, that we all have the same rights, that no group is a majority, and no group is a minority, but they can all claim the same fundamental rights regardless of who they are and which community or communities they belong to, is more urgent than ever.
Richness
What made me emotional, I think, is that I find it both defiant and comforting to hear Kurdish politicians insist on our common humanity. Ilham Ahmed, the foreign relations representative of the Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria, phrased it like this in the keynote speech she held at the conference: “We have to go back to our historical roots, before the creation of nation states. Syria is a multi-colour society, we have a richness in cultures, ethnicities and religions and we all need recognition. Everybody, including women, needs to be involved in the transition Syria is going through so everybody can say: ‘This is my state because it recognises me’.”
Yes, she sees that the new interim-government has drawn up a temporary constitution that is, as she described it, ‘monist, Islamist and radical’, but that is all the more reason to keep the channels of conversation open. The deal that SDF general commander Mazlum Abdi made with Al-Sharaa isn’t off the table since the new ‘constitution’, but has become ever more urgent. The commissions that Abdi and Al-Sharaa agreed upon are still being formed, and the work towards a pluralistic Syria continues.
Humanity
What other option is there? There is no other option, just as in Turkey there is no other option than to insist on the government to take steps towards democracy. Not despite İmamoğlu being jailed now, but because also İmamoğlu is jailed now, alongside his Kurdish fellow-politicians.
If these times make anything clear, it is that the Kurdish movement has always been right. We are one, we are equal, we all have the right to live who we are in equality and freedom. Any regime that’s not honouring that humanity, either in the US, Europe, Russia, Israel, Turkey, Syria, Iran, anywhere, is simply wrong. Only by persisting in being clear-mindedly right, the people instead of power can be served.
I’m not crying. You are.
Fréderike Geerdink is an independent journalist. Follow her on Bluesky (or X) or subscribe to her acclaimed weekly newsletter Expert Kurdistan.
