Turkey will NEVER respect the Will of Kurds or the marches

[Anthea]

6-day 'Respect for the Will March'

A 6-day 'Respect for the Will March' from Van to Hakkari was launched today ([b]unsure of date) in protest at the appointment of a trustee on 3 June to Hakkari Municipality won by the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in the 31 March local elections[/b]

The arrival of masses from Turkey and Kurdistan cities in Van city center was followed by a press statement in Musa Anter Park with the participation of DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan, MPs, co-mayors of municipalities and representatives of non-governmental organisations and local people.

Bakırhan said that nowhere in the world has a march been organised with the demand of "respect for the will". Remarking that the organisation of a march with this demand was a shame for the country, Bakırhan said, "Ballot boxes were set up all over Turkey, people chose their will to govern them, but their will was not recognized. The march for respect for the people’s will is a shame for this country. People elect their rulers, who, however, are ruled out one by one with various excuses. It is a pity for the people living in Turkey, a great shame. Either you will not put the ballot box or when the ballot box is set up you will say 'Kurds cannot vote'. You will mark the houses of Kurds and put a red cross on them. But if you put the ballot box, you will respect it. If you don't respect it, the people who elected those rulers will protect their will."

Bakırhan said, "If you see Kurds as citizens of this country, you all have to respect their declaration of will. You usurped their will for two terms and appointed trustees in the place of their elected representatives. The best example is Van. The municipalities are trapped in debt and no services are provided. There is migration and unemployment. There is no infrastructure, no water. The facilities of the municipality have been made a present to some people. You have destroyed and usurped everything related to the Kurdish language, culture, language, belief and life and you shamelessly say 'we don't accept it'. We will make you accept it.”

Bakırhan emphasised that the appointment of a trustee in Hakkari should be reversed and said, "Give up this unlawful approach. Release Mehmet Sıddık Akış. If you are confident in yourselves, appear before us with your candidates in the next election, come with your governors, bureaucrats and trustees and do your propaganda. Let us respect whoever people choose. Otherwise, this country loses. Can such a thing happen? This is Turkey's shame. This shame must be abandoned. I call on those who govern this country to give up this shame."

Stressing that they will continue their struggle, Bakırhan said, "Turkey is going through a serious economic crisis, poverty is rampant, people cannot make a living, there is no freedom and democracy, but we are dealing with the trustees. If you care so much about the people of Hakkari and Van, open the borders and let people trade. Open the borders so that people from outside the country can come to Van and Hakkari. Open the plateaus you have banned, let people do agriculture and animal husbandry. Distribute Turkey's national income in a fair and equal way to the Kurdish provinces, then come and compete so that people can say that this government is acting fairly. Then you might have a chance. But with rejection, denial and oppression, you will never have a chance anywhere in Kurdistan."

After the statement, the march, which will continue for 6 days, started. Thousands of people marched with the slogans "No passage for the trustee" and "Colemêrg ya me ye" [Hakkari is ours].

The participants will walk approximately 20 kilometres today and reach the district of Gürpınar today.

[Anthea]

Respect for the Will March

passes through Hakkari

A 6-day 'Respect for the Will March' from Van to Hakkari was launched on 3 July in protest at the appointment of a trustee on 3 June to Hakkari Municipality won by the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in the 31 March local elections

On its second day, the march continued in the Gürpınar district of Van following a press statement in Tekmala Şêx Safiyeddîn hamlet.

DEM Party Mardin MP Saliha Aydeniz stated that they are marching for the people of Hakkari and the will of the peoples, "We are marching for the future of Kurdish and Turkish peoples. The AKP-MHP fascist government does not recognise the will of anyone. This march is an opportunity for all peoples. The trustee practice must be reversed. We will fight until this decision is reversed."

Saliha Aydeniz said that the crisis in the country is deepening day by day and continued, "The way out of this crisis is to recognise the will of the people. The trustee is a coup. Kurdish people and their friends are marching against this coup. If this coup continues, this country will turn into an open prison.

We are marching not only for the appointment of trustees but also to break the isolation of Mr Öcalan. For the isolation to be broken and for the future of the country, Mr Öcalan must be freed. Our struggle will continue until these policies are ended. The opposition should also know that the path to democracy passes through Hakkari, the freedom of the Kurdish people and the freedom of Mr Öcalan."

[Anthea]

"Respect the Will"

March continues on 7th day

For a week, the "Respect the Will" March has been heading from western Turkey to the southeast to demand recognition for the will of the voters in Northern Kurdistan

The destination of the march is the Kurdish resistance stronghold of Hakkari (Colemêrg), which was again placed under compulsory state administration at the beginning of June.

The legitimate and freely elected mayor, Mehmet Sıddık Akış, who ran for the DEM party in the local elections in March and was elected with almost 49 percent of the vote despite massive attempts at fraud and the deployment of thousands of soldiers as "ghost voters", was removed from office after two months and sentenced to almost 20 years in prison in a political terror trial for supporting the PKK.

The Turkish Ministry of the Interior has transferred the official business to a trustee, despite the appointment of DEM politician Viyan Tekçe as interim mayor by the city council.

Break in Van on Friday

The participants in the protest march spent Friday night in the province of Van and set off from Başkale (Elbak) on Saturday morning towards Hakkari.

Among the approximately 350 participants are co-mayors and deputies of the DEM as well as representatives of civil society organizations and politicians from other parties. After about four kilometers, a stop was made to make a statement about the action.

Feray Mertoğlu, co-chair of the SYKP (Party for Socialist Reconstruction), told journalists that the march against the trustees is continuing despite massive obstruction by the state. "For three electoral periods, Kurds have been denied the right to vote and to stand for election. In order to preserve its own comfort, the government does not allow the Kurdish population to govern itself and elect its own mayors.

The compulsory administration in Kurdistan is a result of the refusal to resolve the Kurdish question by democratic means. People, including the revolutionary and bourgeois opposition, must not remain silent about this. If we remain silent, women will be locked in their homes, workers will be unemployed and nature will be destroyed."

Background

Eight years of compulsory administration in Kurdish communities

In 2016 and 2017, 95 elected mayors in Kurdish communities were deposed by the Turkish Ministry of the Interior and 93 of them were imprisoned. After the 2019 local elections, 48 ​​elected mayors were removed from office and 39 of them were arrested. After the local elections on March 31, 2024, it has now hit Mehmet Sıddık Akış. It cannot be ruled out that other mayors from the DEM party are on the government's hit list. Numerous former elected representatives from Turkey now live in exile in Europe.