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Specialist Journalist Fehim Işık wrote on Sunday an article in Yeni Özgür Politika on the approach of politics in Turkey and around the world to the Kurds.
A translation of the article is as follows:
Fehim IŞIK
* There is a direct link between Erdoğan’s breaking of the Solution Process and resumption of hostilities on the one hand and the Kobanê resistance and the defeat of ISIS on the other.
* The attitude to the Kurds of all but the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) and a group of patriotic, leftist and socialist parties is quite obvious. All the establishment parties are hostile to the Kurds, their attitudes are clear… OK, so why should the attitude of the Kurds not be clear?!
Erdoğan’s threats against Rojava [North and East Syria] are not new. Erdoğan resumed hostilities in 2015 and his attacks against the Kurdish people have continued unabated ever since.
2015 was also the year in which ISIS, whom Erdoğan had set upon the Kurds, was defeated and lost all dominance of the area. There is a direct link between Erdoğan’s breaking of the Solution Process and resumption of the war on the one hand and the Kobanê resistance and the defeat of ISIS on the other. As he continued attacking the Kurds with his unending hostility, he used the geopolitical position of Turkey as well as its population of 80 million as a bargaining chip with the US and Russia. He bargained in the same way with the EU states as well. He indexed everything towards profit in these bargains, in which there was not one crumb of morality, and finally in 2018 he occupied Afrin and in 2019 Girê Spî [Tell Abyad] and Serêkaniyê [Ras al-Ayn].
Erdoğan came back to the bargaining table once more. In all his calculations, all he wished for, for the Kurds, was the worst that could happen. He made the Kurds into a bargaining chip at the NATO summit. He made hostility to the Kurds a condition of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership. He is knocking on the US and Russia’s doors on alternate days to get approval for a new invasion. And the attack on Rojava was on the agenda at the summit to be held with Russia and Iran on 19 July, on the very day of the anniversary of the Rojava revolution.
Rojava is not Erdoğan’s only issue. All the gains the Kurds have made through the years against all odds are now under threat. The democratic autonomous administration in Rojava is under threat. The federal administration in South Kurdistan [Iraqi Kurdistan] is under threat. The democratic politics by which the influence of the Kurds is increasing and breaking thresholds is under threat. The Kurdish press and newspapers are under threat. Is that all? The Kurdish language, Kurdish art and Kurdish culture are once again under threat.
In brief, everything Kurdish is under threat.
In keeping with the dirty bargains driven by the Erdoğan administration, it is also increasing its attacks. But there is no aspect of the sector that defines itself as the opposition that falls short of the Erdoğan administration either. Although it is aware that the administration is exploiting these attacks, the opposition, led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP), emits more war cries than the administration itself. In the meantime upstart fascist parties derived from little pockets here and there have started fanning the flames of hostility to refugees and civil war. There is an obvious new plan. Their earlier “Collapse Plan” against the Kurds has collapsed, but the games of these grandsons of the Ottomans have not. They are leading the implementation of new plans of genocide, and also assigning duties to the little fascist and nationalist parties.
The scene as it stands signifies that even if he cannot get international support, Erdoğan will initiate a fresh invasion of Rojava. All the developments indicate that this attack will take place.
The aggression politics of the Erdoğan regime were on the agenda of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Commander-in-Chief Mazloum Abdi. Taking into account all the risks and naturally also the gains and opportunities to be had at the time, evaluated the reasons for Erdoğan’s aggressive attitude. I will not repeat them here. In brief, Mazloum Abdi said, clearly and succinctly, “Erdoğan may decide when the war will start, but it is not he, but we, who will decide when it ends.” There is no doubt this is determination to engender hope.
Mazloum Abdi also called out to the Kurds: “While the situation is like this, sleep is and should be forbidden to the Kurds”. Then he made the following appeal, “No matter to what degree the Kurds have may have internal disputes or differences of opinion, the basic duty of the Kurds is to protect their achievements. For this reason the Kurds must have a clear stance against the occupiers.”
The attitude to the Kurds of the administration, the opposition and the little upstart parties, just about all but the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) and a group of patriotic, leftist and socialist parties is quite obvious. All the establishment parties are hostile to the Kurds, their attitudes are clear…
So why should the attitude of the Kurds not be clear?!
And what that attitude should be is also clear: You’re either with the occupiers, or with the resistance, that is, with those who pay the highest price there is for freedom.
There is nothing in between. In earnest.
