Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has completed the first phase of the "Democratic Struggle Program", which it has been preparing for a while against the oppression, anti-democratic practices in the country, trustees appointed to municipalities and stripping off the MP status of the members of the parliament. The march, which started from Hakkari and Edirne to Ankara on June 15, ended yesterday in Ankara. HDP members met in the Parliament (National Sovereignty) Park and announced the declaration.

 

After the march, we were the guests of HDP Istanbul Deputy Musa Piroğlu and HDP Central Executive Committee (MYK) member Veli Saçılık and listened to their memories of the march, their political arguments and their visions of the future.

 

Regarding the attack in Silivri where he stood in front of a TOMA attack vehicle Piroğlu said, "Those images with TOMA were actually one of the last scenes of the whole attack. As a result of the resistance and standing together we agreed that a certain number of people would go to Edirne.  The attitude of the police was harsh, but the determination of the people were also harsh. It was that determination that made the police step back. We made our press release there and set off for Edirne. There were not many big events in Edirne following our arrival, because that determination had a big impact."

 

Defining the atmosphere in Hakkari Saçılık said, "Whenever you are in a Kurdish province, you see a different atmosphere from İstanbul and Edirne. Already all the hills and the streets are covered with panzers, there is a military image. In addition, we faced a scene in which the streets were filled with a series of soldiers due to our arrival. When I landed at Yüksekova airport in Hakkari, the general manager of the police was also there. Special forces guarded him there. He came there to prevent HDP's march. Despite the aggression of the police, we completed our action. The last scene was important, when leaving Hakkari, 5-6 mothers, who managed to pass the police waiting on the roadsides, came over to Mithat Sancar's car, they stopped the car and they hugged Sancar. Special forces rushed with their riffle butts as if the two armies would collide, they were so excited, frightened and attacked the mothers. At that time, we intervened, it was a moment of tension. Those mothers managed to come there under great pressure."

 

Regarding his own vision of the march Saçılık said, "People have been waiting for an action and they demanded HDP to act. We have sparkled the first light. And this sparkle seems to have a correspondance. This march has shown one more time that the real opposition in Turkey is HDP and only HDP. HDP stands at a crossroad, where all the plans of the Palace may fail. We support the equal and free struggle of the peoples. We are not on the side of the violence and we don't feel happy whenever someone dies, including the soldiers. HDP knows the violence only increases the burdens of the problem and continues its way demanding peace. We also do not define violence as the violence of the oppressed. It is a terror today that almost 7 thousand of our party members are in prison. They should stop that terror. When they stop this terror I don't think no violence will be resorted. Our march will only end when this oppression ends, otherwise the march of the labourer will continue till the revolution. We do not want the bits and pieces, but want to win the the whole world. We do not give this fight targeting only AKP-MHP. We will continue our struggle till all the peoples of the world set free. Whenever the fascism ends and we built the world of the freedom, that is the day we got out on the streets to celeberate and not to protests."

 

Defining the meaning of their march in a broader sense Piroğlu ended his comments saying, "The marches to Ankara shows this; the basic source of the problems is the political structure of the government. The pro-capital, colonialist and male-oppressive character of this political power is the main source of problems in the country. Unless this character changes, there is no chance for the particular struggles. The main reason why these marches target Ankara is to expose the political reality behind the problems. People march to Ankara for the real political subject of the problem to be imposed. This is the basic source of HDP's march to Ankara. For us, the march is the starting step of a long-term movement beyond the physical action of walking. Many people called me, asking 'where are you taking the break?' and I replited, "This march is not just walk on a concrete road but a political road.' We will carry on this march until we terminate this system of oppression. They turned the country into prison. We have begun marching to demolish the walls of this prison, and the day we break those walls, this march would reach to its end. That's why we plant the seeds of hope. We have begun to resist and we will bring the rest of this resistance. The social opposition is awakening from the sleep of the dead."

 

MA / Deniz Nazlım - Berivan Altan