Dates are not coincidential: Kurds insist on democracy while government insists on coup 

2021-06-10 11:24:12


	 

	ANKARA - It is neither a coincidence nor the personal preference of the prosecutor that the date of June 7 was chosen to file the law suit to ban the HDP. Just as the Dolmabahçe Consensus is against the coup in terms of its place and date, the date of the law suit to ban HDP is just as much an expression of being in favor of the coup.

	 

	AKP government choses the dates of their moves against the Kurdish political movement on certain dates, mostly anniversaries of genocides and massacres in the recent years. These dates which are chosen knowingly and willingly has a message. One of these moves was the 'Peace Spring' Operation against Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê cities of the North and East Syria, which was started on October 9, the anniversary of October 9 1998, the date of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan's removal from Syria. Again, one year later on the same day, 'Shengal Agreement' was signed between Iraq, Turkey and the KDP. Another move against the Kurdish political movement on this date was the was the price put on the heads of PKK commanders Cemil Bayık, Murat Karayılan and Duran Kalkan on October 9, 2018. 

	 

	Plans and operations are kept up-to-date and alive by coinciding them to the anniversaries of certain events. On the anniversary of the day PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan extradition to Turkey with an international conspiracy, February 15, 1999, and operation was launched against Garé. While the operation was started on February 10, 2021, the 'good news' was going to be given by AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on February 15, the 22nd anniversary of Öcalan's extradition. However, 12 captive soldiers and police officers lost their lives as a result of the operation.

	 

	The lifting of the immunity of HDP deputies came into effect on June 8, 2016, right after first anniversary of the June 7 elections. The important dates for Kurds are always used for pressuring them. Dozens of people, including HDP supporters, were detained in operations in Ankara, Istanbul, Van, Mardin, Dersim and Diyarbakır on February 15 this year.

	 

	On the anniversary of the PKK's founding date, November 27, 1978, arrest ops are carried out every year in many cities against Kurdish institutions. Same goes for Newroz too. Hundreds of Kurds are detained and arrested right before the Newroz Celebrations.

	 

	The law suit filed against the HDP to ban the party on the anniversary of the June 7, 2015 elections was the last straw.

	 

	JUNE 7 ELECTIONS UPSET THE BALANCES

	 

	In the 7 June 2015 General Elections, the 10 percent threshold brought after the September 12 Military Coup, which also represents the repression of the Kurds was demolished by the HDP. AKP which benefited a lot from the practices of September 12 Coup, fell of the government. Thus, the main pillar of its backbone was destroyed by the HDP voters.

	 

	Assoc. Prof Mete Kaan Kaynar who underlines how important this is for the regime, says, "The process that spoiled the whole fiction started when Kurdish politics received around 9 percent of votes in the June 7, 2015 General Elections, or a bit earlier than that, when Selahattin Demirtaş was a cadidate at the Presidential Elections. After the 2015 elections, it was seen that the HDP naturally had the potential to pass the 10 percent threshold, and the HDP tore down that modus operandi established after 12 September.”

	 

	How critical the process is for them was frequently emphasized by AKP members. While AKP Chairman Tayyip Erdoğan said “give 400 deputies and this matter will be resolved” before the election, he did not leave the Palace for days after the elections. Likewise, after June 7, AKP started a period of continuous decline. Thus, the Kurdish question turned to conflict and the 6 years of violations of rights, conflict and coup has started.

	 

	THE CHOICE OF THE SURPREME COURT

	 

	The Supreme Court Polical Party's Office responded to the call of the MHP demanding HDP to be banned by requesting the Kobané indictment on March 2. This wasn't a coincidence either. The DEP MPs were arrested on March 2, 1994, which was the first of the blows against the Kurdish political movement. In this respect, it was neither a coincidence nor a personal choice of the prosecutor, that prosecutor Bekir Şahin, who did not hide his close relations with the Palace, sent the indictment to the Constitutional Court on 7 June. It was the symbol of the politicized judiciary and the insistence on the founding paradigm.

	 

	TWO JUNE SEVENS

	 

	For the Kurdish movement, June 7 is an important reminder not only in terms of elections but also in terms of political accumulation and collective memory, and it contains the meaning of a coincidential date because the win of the HDP on June 7 elections was incidentally on the anniversary of the date People's Labour Party (HEP) was established. (June 7, 1990) 

	 

	The success in the June 7 elections brings to mind the establishment of the HEP, whose tradition is also preserved by the HDP. Journalist-writer Hüseyin Aykol, in his article titled "A Happy Day: 7 June", emphasizes the HEP and describes the 25-year period between two Junes as follows: "Even though the HEP was closed, many parties that were established afterwards brought the representatives and friends of the Kurdish people to the parliament and local governments. The HDP's success in the 7 June 2015 elections caused the AKP to lose its balance and fall apart.

	 

	In addition, HEP defines itself as a party that appeals to "workers, the unemployed, peasants, civil servants, teachers, democrats, social democrats and socialist intellectuals, tradesmen, artisans, the masses of people exposed to oppression and exploitation, and everyone who is in favor of democracy", and underpins the current HDP code on early 90's. HEP was closed a year after it was established but June 7 was jogged on social memory as a 'blessed day' in terms of Kurdish political movement.

	 

	FROM FEBRUARY 28 TO JUNE 7

	 

	The fact that the date June 7 was chosen for the day to file the law suit to ban the HDP is important in terms of reminding ourselves what happened at the first 6 months of 2015 and understand the chosen date was at the same time, the difference between coup and democracy. The Kurdish political movement did not hesitate to make critical decisions on historically symbolic days. The date of the Dolmabahçe Agreement, written by PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and announced jointly by the İmralı Delegation and government officials on February 28, 2015, was chosen for two reasons. Compared to the February 28 Post-Modern Coup, it was the message of the "anti-coup" positioning of the Kurdish political movement. The chosen date heralded that the bad luck of governments and peoples would change in Turkey, where a coup takes place every 10-15 years. 

	 

	The choice of Dolmabahçe Palace as the venue where the agreement would be signed was also the answer to the meeting held at the same place in 2007 between Tayyip Erdoğan and the then Chief of Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt. This meeting, which the parties expressed that they would keep as a "secret", was interpreted as the government's partnership with the state mind on the Kurdish issue. Years later, the main axis was the Kurdish question, while steps were taken on the basis of democratization of the state in the same venue.

	 

	The results of the June 7 General Elections, which were held months after the Dolmabahçe Consensus, would be leading the way for Turkey's democratization. However, Erdogan's statement that the elections were a breaking point and that plans B and C would be implemented according to the election results were put into practice in a television program he appeared on May 21, 2015. Turkey once again entered the period of conflict and coup. 

	 

	In this sense, while the Kurdish movement wants to build the future by transforming the February 28 coup in favor of democracy with the February 28 Dolmabahçe Agreement, the government aims to turn the democratic will that emerged on June 7, 2015 into a coup, with the case against the HDP to ban the party, and continue the ill fate of the peoples.

	 

	 

	MA / Deniz Nazlım