Öznur Değer 

 

ANKARA - Evaluating the Kobanê Trial, which first hearing was held on April 26, to our agency, DBP's former co-chair Sebahat Tuncel said: "For us, the court process will be a struggle area where a democratic legal system, freedoms, equality, democracy and peace will be defended. Another life is possible. As long as we can increase the solidarity and increase the struggle."

 

Sebahat Tuncel, former co-chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), one of the 17 politician women who were tried in the Kobanê Trial, was brought to the Sincan Women's Closed Prison for the Kobanê Trial, which started on April 26, from the Kandıra Women's Closed Prison, where she was detained. Sebahat shared her evaluations and observations regarding the first hearing of the Kobanê Trial, which was held on April 26, from the Sincan Prison where she is now, with our agency. Sebahat, who is kept in a cell under the name of ‘quarantine measures’, emphasized that the Kobanê Trial meant "to avenge the defeat of ISIS through the Turkish judiciary."

 

Reminded ‘witch hunt’

 

Sebahat stated that the custody and arrests of the Kurdish women's movement, Kurdish political movement, and friends of the Kurds resembled the process in which millions of women were killed by claiming that they were ‘witches’. Sebahat reminded the words of the sociology professor, writer Maria Mies, ‘The persecution of witches was not a remnant of the dark, irrational Middle Ages, as is generally believed, but a manifestation of the rising modern society’. Sebahat continued as: "The exploitation of the labor and body of women, the exclusion of women from economic life and science, naming everything they do in the field of science as 'witchcraft', it is the institutionalization of the male-dominated system. It is the elimination of women's effectiveness in the social economy, politics, and scientific fields."

 

‘Witch’ in the middle age, ‘terrorist’ nowadays’

 

Sebahat pointed out that the pressures against the field of democratic politics, the suppression of Kurds, socialists, women and environmentalists through the ‘law’ mechanism, the detentions and arrests remind us of ‘witch-hunt’ and ‘witch genocide’. Sebahat pointed out that those who were called ‘witches’ in the middle age are now called ‘terrorist’. Sebahat said: "The term ‘terrorism’ is used in such a wide sense in Turkey that almost everyone who does not obey the power is presented as ‘terrorist’. Many concepts such as democracy, human rights, equality, freedom, and peace are used beyond their real meaning, only to mask and hide lies to protect the interests of the government. The independent judiciary means nothing more than a discourse that covers the connection established with the power and the palace. We are faced with the court presidents who are acting as the heads of the AKP-MHP's legal commissions. We witnessed this once again at the Kobanê Trial, which started on April 26. Kurds are not strangers to these practices. We faced a similar approach in Independence Courts, State Security Courts (DGM), and Assize Courts."

 

‘We were faced with legal pressure’

 

Noting that lawyers define this as ‘enemy law’, Sebahat stated that when the issue is Kurds, women and socialists, the meaning and content of the constitution, the law, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) have changed. Sebahat underlined that they were faced with ‘legal force and pressure’ in the person of the 22nd High-Criminal Court at the hearing held on April 26 and said: "It is obvious that the chief judge wants to take a place in politics in the coming period. Therefore, instead of legal requirements, it acts according to the requirements of the palace and the president. Of course, it is certain that there will not be a fair trial and a fair decision here. Precisely for this reason, the court process will be a field of struggle where a democratic legal system, freedoms, equality, democracy and peace will be defended and the equality and friendship of the peoples will be defended."

 

‘HDP is the only obstacle to the one-man regime’

 

Sebahat stated that the court showed that the only obstacle to the government is the democratic political sphere and continued her words as follows: "The only obstacle to the building of the new regime (one-man regime) of the Fascist People’s Alliance is the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which expresses the united organized power of peoples, beliefs and women. With these trials, this obstacle is wanted to be removed. Against the monist, authoritarian, fascistic rule of the People’s Alliance, the democratic, ecological, women's liberal administration system represented by the HDP gives hope and morale to the peoples and keeps the claim that ‘another life is possible’ alive. In fact, this hope is wanted to be broken with these trials. But these are futile efforts. For a century, the Kurds have been resisting all kinds of state violence, oppression and cruelty. This tradition of resistance continues today and will continue. The issue is not just an issue for the HDP. This process will determine whether a democratic republic will be built in Turkey, equality of peoples, beliefs, freedom, and the will to live in peace and security. So, this judgment is not an ordinary, simple one. It will reveal results that will affect the politics of Turkey, the future of the peoples of Turkey and women. Therefore, everyone who favors democracy, equality, freedom, and peace should be in solidarity with the HDP in this process. Not for the HDP, but for themselves."

 

‘Taking revenge by the hand of the judiciary’

 

Sebahat emphasized that these lawsuits also target the women's freedom line. Pointing out that since 2015 there has been an attack on the Kurdish women's movement in particular, the women's movement in Turkey in general, the socialist and feminist movement, Sebahat said: "The trustee policy has targeted co-chairship, women's institutions, women's gains in local governments. The withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention and an increase in violence and femicides is related to the People’s Alliance that targeting the women's liberation line. We see this approach in the Kobanê Trial. While the leading role of Kurdish women in defeating ISIS gangs and the leading role of women in the Rojava Revolution are supported by all peoples and women of the world, Turkey makes this a subject of judgment. In this case, the defeat of ISIS, which Turkey does not see any harm in supporting, has no meaning other than trying to take revenge through the judiciary. In fact, the whole world knows this fact. As everyone knows the fact that the ruling party is the main responsible of the process called the 6-8 October events and caused the deaths of dozens of people, and that this case is an effort to conceal this truth."