ANKARA - Speaking in Parliament, DEM Party Group Deputy Chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit said: “Aren't you following in the footsteps of Kenan Evren and the September 12 coup mentality? You know no boundaries in your Kurdish enmity. Your enmity has reached as far as the asphalt.” 

 

Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Group Deputy Chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit held a press conference in the Parliament on current developments. Koçyiğit started her speech by unfurling a placard with the warning sign, “Pêşî Peya (Pedestrian First)” that had been removed from pedestrian crossings. Drawing attention to the fact that the Parliament is on vacation, Koçyiğit explained the work of the general assembly. Koçyiğit said: “As DEM Party, we have stubbornly and resolutely fought to make the parliament the parliament of rights, the parliament of women, laborers, the poor, the disabled, all living beings and nature. The DEM Party is the main opposition force in the parliament, it has the power of the main opposition party. Wherever there was injustice and lawlessness, we expressed it in the parliament.” 

 

 

ATTACKS ON THE KURDISH LANGUAGE 

 

Koçyiğit said : “Today, every day there is a new wave of attacks against Kurdish culture, language and existence with a concept that does not resemble the September 12 coup period. In the 80s and 90s, Kurdish was forbidden, there was a reality in Turkey that buried Kurdish cassettes in the ground. Today, it is forbidden to be Kurdish, it is forbidden to halay. Since the day AKP came to power, it has been carrying out its discriminatory and marginalizing approach against Kurdish language and culture in every field.

 

Attacks on Kurdish culture and language have recently taken a completely different turn. A 'halay capture team' is established within the police force. By entering Kurdish private spaces and weddings and scanning social media images shared from there, a new wave of attacks against Kurds has been launched. In a country where those who murder women walk around freely, gangsters, mafias and corrupt people roam freely, Kurds are being detained and arrested for dancing the halay.

 

INTOLERANCE OF THE KURDISH LANGUAGE

 

All the peoples of Turkey know how our people stood against the attacks against Kurds in the past. The attacks continue with a completely different phase. What happened? First in Wan (Van), then in Amed (Diyarbakır), Mêrdîn (Mardin), and today in Êlîh (Batman), accompanied by the police, they took action to erase one by one the services that our municipalities offer in public life in a way that includes everyone. What did they do? The police instigated the perpetrator in Wan. The police's lawyer is advising the perpetrator in Wan. The police itself encourages the perpetrator on how to commit an unlawful crime. Now our municipalities have written on the asphalt ‘Pêşî peya’, meaning ‘pedestrian first’. What harm does this writing do to you? It was written to make life easier for the Kurds whose language, identity and color you have ignored for so many years. We want to ask what kind of mind this is. AKP government that boasts that it has opened a Kurdish channel on TRT, an AKP government that says 'we have made it easier to do politics in Kurdish', AKP government that says 'Kurdish is now free in prisons', all of which we know are not true. We know very well the content of the broadcasts on TRT and how they serve the assimilation of Kurds. How are we going to express the intolerance of the AKP government, which boasts of all this, to the graffiti written by our municipalities to make life easier for the people? 

 

MUNICIPALITIES IN THE LANGUAGE OF THE PEOPLE 

 

They said they wanted to make the traces of September 12 forgotten by turning Diyarbakır Prison into a museum. But aren't you repeating the practices of Kenan Evren with the Halay operations and the erasure of Kurdish inscriptions on the roads? Aren't you following in the footsteps of Kenan Evren and the September 12 coup mentality? You know no boundaries in your Kurdish enmity. Your enmity has reached as far as the asphalt, we would not be surprised if you remove those asphalts soon.” 

 

'TO MAKE THE KURDS FORGET MR. ÖCALAN...'

 

Explaining the reason for the insistence on the isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan with the statement “It is being done to make the Kurds forget Mr. Öcalan”, Koçyiğit drew attention to the government's intention to “crush” the hope for peace. Koçyiğit said: “It is being done to destroy the Kurds' imagination of a common life. It is being done to detach Kurds from democratic politics and the reality of being a people. In the face of these policies, our people are shouting this truth one day with a melody, one day with a slogan, one day with a halay, one day with a horon, and will continue to do so. Therefore, stop trying to lay a hand on the Kurds' halay, stop criminalizing and attacking Kurdish culture. You should know that this will not be allowed under any circumstances. The Kurdish question cannot be solved with these racist fascist policies, assimilation policies and war politics. Millions of people have accepted Mr. Öcalan as their political will. Millions of people demand Mr. Öcalan's freedom after 25 years of imprisonment under isolation. Millions of people are calling for a return to Mr. Öcalan's mind for peace and solution. Millions of people are shouting in the squares every day that they are Kurdish and that their language and culture cannot be destroyed by policies of oppression and coercion. Our advice to you is to listen to this voice and the truth.”