The murder of Miraç Miroğlu (7) who was riding his bike on the street with an armored vehicle in İdil district of Şırnak on September 3 brought similar deaths to the agenda in the cities of the region. According to the data, at least 40 people, 20 of whom were children, lost their lives in the cities of the region between 2008-2021 as a result of being ran over by armored vehicles or by the fire opened from armored vehicles.

 

Lawyer Abdulbasit Bildirici, the director of the Human Rights and Solidarity for the Oppressed Association (MAZLUMDER), evaluated the practices targeting the public in the cities of the region. 

 

REPRESANTATION OF MILITARY AUTHORITY

 

Noting that the incidents caused by armored vehicles in Kurdish cities could not be considered as "traffic accidents", Bildirici pointed out that the events had a political dimension. Bildirici said that especially since the beginning of the 2000s, as human rights defenders, they have warned that military facilities should be taken out of the provincial centers, and reminded that these facilities have been consciously established in city centers since the Atatürk and İnönü periods. Noting that there are one or more military facilities in every city and district center, Bildirici noted that some of these facilities are garrisons, some are military commands, and some are police stations. Bildirici said, “Because the new regime was being built with military power. The presence of the soldiers in the city centers established a spontaneous authority over the people. For example, although the military guards, who were constantly patrolling the city centers, seemed to be there to control the privates and sergeants, in the end, they were always there as a threat on the people." 

 

A SPECIAL APPLICATION FOR THE KURDISH CITIES

 

Stating that the AKP decided to take all military facilities out of the city in order to reduce the military's covert dominance over the people and the administration in the name of democracy, Bildirici said, "With this, armored vehicles would travel less in the city center and the presence of the soldiers would begin to be less visible. The ultimate goal expected from this practice was to limit the military power to border security, as in western countries where democracy is more developed, and to provide internal security through the police. When we look back, we see that the practice was successful in western provinces. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Kurdish provinces. Now maybe military buildings are less common but now we have armoured police vehicles all over the place."

 

SOLUTION OFFERS

 

In order to prevent these and similar incidents, Bildirici suggested a two-stage solution and said, “The first stage; the rule of law in all areas and the full establishment of judicial independence. For this, policies that give priority to freedom in the security-freedom dilemma must be implemented. It does not seem possible to expect this from the current government, which has been ruling Turkey for 20 years. The second stage is; Accepting the Kurdish question as a legal problem and find a political solution to it. 

 

MA / Dindar Karataş