Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) Labour Assembly member Yılmaz Yıldırımcı evaluated the economic cost of war policies on Turkey. Referring to the Democratic Development Institute's report titled 'The Economic Cost of 40 Years of Low Intensity War to Turkey', Yıldırımcı said that the cost of 40 years of war to the Turkish economy was 3 trillion 865 billion 358 million dollars. Yıldırımcı stated that the governments that failed to offer a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue imposed a great economic burden on the country and that the cost of the war returned to labourers as a burden.

 

Stating that the war against the Kurds has decayed social life and brought the economy to the point of collapse, Yıldırımcı said, "It has also disrupted the ecological balance. Apart from these, it has brought the society face to face with chauvinism and racism through discriminatory policies. All of the government policies in Turkey, including the basic budget were designed according to the war. Therefore, no labouring class has any interes in war. Wars impose great burdens on the labouring classes both in the country and in the world and turn their lives upside down."

 

"Thousands of people have lost their lives in this war," said Yıldırımcı and added, "Look at Palestine, Israel and Rojava. Again, there have been conflicts in our region for 40 years. Women, children and labourers are the ones who have lost their lives the most. Our values, mountains and plains are being destroyed. Our geography is being riddled and razed to the ground for mining. Therefore, for the sake of profit, for the sake of capital, capital owners want war, and for war they try to make profit by trading arms. From this point of view, 40 years of conflict in Turkey has cost the lives of thousands of people."

 

'THREE AND A HALF MILLION PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DISPLACED'

 

Yıldırımcı pointed out that as a result of the conflict in Turkey, 4 thousand villages were burnt down and destroyed during the conflict and three and a half million people were displaced from their homeland.

 

He added, "The region has been completely economically collapsed. Therefore, as a war zone, Kurdistan is experiencing the bottom of poverty."

 

Yıldırımcı said, "Weapons must be silenced. However, silence of the weapons is not enough for the war to end and peace to come. When we look at the money spent on the defence industry in Turkey only in 2025, it is 1 trillion 950 million. It was increased by 50 percent compared to the previous year. More than 50 percent of the working population in the country works with minimum wage. In other words, 50 percent of the population is below the hunger limit. Therefore, this situation reveals that social peace cannot be achieved in this way. In order to eliminate poverty in Turkey, there must also be a fair tax system and a fair distribution of income. This is where we see the connection between war and labour."

 

'WE MUST WORK FOR PEACE WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH'

 

Yıldırımcı said that in the public meetings they held as HDK within the scope of the "1 million signatures for peace" campaign, people asked them the question "Of course we want peace and I am hungry, I can't buy bread, I can't send my children to school, what do you say for this?" Yıldırımcı said, "For this, we say that first the war must end, a democratic environment must be ensured and those horrible figures that go to the war and defence industry must be paid to the labourers and poor people. With 4 trillion dollars, there would be no such thing as poverty in this country."

 

Stating that even the word "peace" creates excitement during the discussion process, Yıldırımcı continued his words as follows: "Negotiations with Mr Öcalan continue. We do not know what the outcome will be, but regardless of the outcome; even the use of the concept of peace excites us. Projects for the construction of social peace are put forward and this is strengthened on a legal basis. This is our demand. As democratic mass organisations, labour and professional organisations and political parties, all of us who nurture the hope for the future of the peoples of Turkey must work with all our strength against this war that impoverishes us and forces us to live below the hunger limit. The whole society will win in peace. Peace has no losers. We need to endeavour to bring our society to a more democratic and libertarian era."

 

MA / Ömer Güngör