Öznur Değer

 

KONYA - HDP Konya Provincial Co-chair Songül Çetin drew attention to the increasing racist attacks and said: ‘’The state is trying to keep itself alive with hostility towards Kurds. As HDP, we have to carry out serious work against these racist attacks. These attacks are not something that will make us afraid, but something that will make us stronger and go out to the streets.’’

 

In the last month, eight Kurds, including four women, were killed as a result of racist attacks, while dozens of Kurds were injured. Kurds working as seasonal workers in Afyon and Antalya were battered as a result of racist attacks, four Kurds from the same family living in Ankara were seriously injured by firearms, and a Kurdish woman living with her children in Ankara was forced to move home as a result of the attack she was subjected to. While the racism balance sheet is more than what we can count, impunity policies and provocative political language deepen the scene. In particular, eight people who were massacred in Konya within a month because they were Kurds reveal the racism that has become a serious problem.

 

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Konya Provincial Co-Chair Songül Çetin made evaluations about the increasing racist attacks against Kurds and stated that the government is trying to keep itself alive with Kurdish hostility.

 

‘Society was divided into two as ‘Kurdish and Turkish’

 

Saying that racist attacks are a very deep issue, Songül emphasized that the attack on the Dedeoğulları family was not an isolated attack. Noting that they had witnessed racist and fascist attacks for a long time, Songül recalled the attacks against their party and party members. Adding that the source of a deadly racist attack on the Dedeoğulları family was the language created by the government, Songül said: ‘’Those are facts created in the subconscious of the people together with that language. With this language, the society was divided into two as ‘Kurdish and Turkish’. It is necessary to talk about the century-old process of the state. This, in final point, resulted in one family being murdered by another family. At the moment, it has come to the point where the state and parties have withdrawn and the peoples will be set against each other.”

 

‘Would there be an attack against me too?’

 

Expressing that there is nervousness and polarization among the peoples, Songül said: ‘’Everyone has worry for ‘Would there be an attack against me too?’’. Expressing that people are right to be worried, Songül stated that they watch news of an attack in the media every day. Saying that the Kurds are held responsible even for the forest areas in Antalya, İzmir, Manisa and Isparta, Songül said: ‘’Of course, there will be anxiety as a result of this. Trying to make people afraid to go out on the street. These are things that are done consciously.’’

 

‘11-year process results in the murder of seven people’

 

Songül underlined that the Dedeoğulları family were murdered shortly after the attack on May 12. Indicating that they frequently visit their family relatives, Songül stated that the family members are worry. Pointing out that the power behind the murderer is unknown, Songül said: ‘’It is unknown how these events started and how they continued. Family members say they are nervous. ‘The perpetrator may have been arrested, but others may come and murder us. We are now at the target point,’ they say. The 11-year process results in the murder of seven people. Naturally, they will be nervous.’’

 

‘The state is trying to keep itself alive with Kurdish hostility’

 

Pointing out that there is a Kurdish hostility created in the system, Songül said that the state is trying to keep itself alive with hostility towards Kurds. Underlining that the HDP has to carry out serious work in the face of these racist attacks, Songül emphasized that fascist attacks will decrease with the spread of HDP's ideas. Songül stated that the state was also aware of the HDP's purpose and continued as follows: ‘’The more democratized Turkey becomes, the stronger it will become. They are aware of this, but there is one point that the state has been feeding on for 100 years, nationalism. We believe that we are strong enough to oppose these attacks. Together with our people, we will defeat these attacks. The AKP-MHP government has been talking about the Ottoman state for a long time, playing Ottomanism. The AKP and MHP mentality implements a system that aims to assimilate people as Turkish-Sunni people and to marginalize non-Turkish and non-Sunni peoples. There is no alternative but democratization. Turkey has only one salvation. They should accept all peoples, beliefs, cultures and values, issue a new constitution and say to the peoples, ‘We are going the wrong way, the right way is a democratic, fair and peaceful Turkey.’

 

‘We should not afraid, we should go out to the streets’

 

“No matter how much they terrorize the HDP, this land of fear will go away in a certain time,” she said. Songül underlined that the geography of fear will be completely destroyed. Songül continued: ‘’The day is not a day to be afraid, to cringe, to self-destruct. Without the Kurds, no one can come to power, no one can win, and Turkey cannot be democratized and liberated. The government is aware of our strength. We must make the best use of this power. In Konya, a total of eight people, seven from one family and one from another family, were murdered. This is something that will require us not to be afraid, but to get stronger and go out to the streets. We will democratize Turkey.’’