[Speech at protest rally in Melbourne, September 7, 2019]
Australians for Kurdistan joins with you in condemning the August 19 sacking by the Turkish government of the elected Kurdish mayors of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van. Government appointed “administrators” have replaced the mayors. The new rulers have dissolved the elected city councils and dismissed officials and workers.
The three mayors were elected in the March 31 municipal elections with majorities of 63%, 56% and 53% respectively. By this action the Erdogan regime has effectively cancelled the election results in the three biggest cities of the Kurdish-majority southeast and east of the country.
The dismissed mayors had not been disqualified before the local elections despite vigorous government “security” vetting. In justifying its move against the mayors, the regime made the spurious allegation that they were using municipal funds to support the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Despite the regime’s claims, no charges have been laid against the mayors. But in AKP-ruled Turkey today, no one worries about legal niceties.
The truth is that the Erdogan regime is waging a war against the Kurdish people, both at home and abroad.
At home thousands of Kurdish activists languish in the prisons. Prior to the March elections score of municipalities were already under government administration. Two of the most prominent leaders of the HDP — Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekdag — remain in jail on trumped-up charges.
The regime is trying to strangle the Kurdish-led people’s revolution in Rojava in northern Syria. It has blockaded it and built a wall for hundreds of kilometres along the border. It is trying to impose a so-called “safe zone” to push the revolution back from the frontier and weaken it.
The Erdogan regime is also waging a war in northern Iraq in yet another effort to wipe out the PKK, pinning its hopes on surveillance and bombing by high-tech drones as well as the complicity of the Barzani regime in the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Why is Erdogan doing all this? The regime uses anti-Kurd racism to unite far-right and nationalist forces behind it. Its survival depends on crushing any elements of dissent and democracy. The liberation project of the Kurdish people — as exemplified by the HDP’s fight for democracy and women’s equality — is a mortal threat to Erdogan’s corrupt, crony capitalist regime. The Kurdish liberation movement across the border in northern Iraq and northern Syria also represents a fundamental threat to Erdogan’s gang.
But the Kurdish people are fighting back and we salute their courage, determination and perseverance.
Reinstate the sacked Kurdish mayors!
Long live the Kurdish freedom struggle!