ISTANBUL - Being of a member of the Green Left Party's Istanbul 3rd Region candidate from Group Munzur band, by going into politics against the pressures on art, Cemil Güngören said: "We want to be the only voice against the one-man regime together with the Green Left Party."

 

There are only a few days left for the Presidential and General Elections on May 14, which are considered by millions as the “election of existence and non-existence”. In Istanbul, which will determine the fate of the elections, 11 million 350 thousand 969 voters will go to the polls. The candidate continues his work in the city with the aim of going to the Parliament with 20 MPs in Istanbul. Cemil Güngören, who was thrown from his art life to his political life as the 3rd Region candidate of the Greens and Left Future Party (Green Left Party), said that change is essential against the pressures of the AKP-MHP government.

 

Born in Adaköy, a district of Pulur (Ovacık) in Dêrsim in 1980, Güngören moved to Istanbul with his family after his high school years. Güngören met the Democratic Rights Federation in the city he came from and started working there. Güngören, who is one of the founders of the Socialist Assemblies Federation (SMF), also started his art studies in Grup Munzur and Culture-Art Magazine, which is part of the Yüz Çiçek Açsın Cultural Center (YÇKM).

 

'ART IS BANNED BY STATE'

 

Stating that he started to fight against the contradiction of exploitation after he came to Istanbul, Güngören said: "I was more active in the field of culture and art within political studies. Grup Munzur, of which I have been a member since 2018, has been making art despite the pressures of the government. Since the day the band was founded, our songs and concerts have been banned or lawsuits have been filed against our friends on various pretexts. This happens all the time. Art is banned by the state. After all, governments want art to develop under their own dominance when systems take over a management system. Many of our artist friends, such as Grup Munzur, have experienced these processes. But it also takes those who make art on its side to a different point, to a more visible situation. Especially after the state of emergency, we, as Grup Munzur, have been turned into a completely banned group in Turkey.”

 

'MENTALITY THAT OPPRESSES THE ARTS AND CULTURE'

 

Stating that the government is at a point where it constantly suppresses and ignores those who are not from it, just as it ignores the Kurds, Güngören said: "We are faced with an understanding that brings societies against each other and ignores those who do not belong to us. In such understandings, culture and art are on this front. Consider that what has happened in the Kurdish and western provinces has always been the same since the past. Theatres, concerts, cinemas are banned. Theaters are closing. Kurdish is already banned. The plays of all our friends who make theater in Kurdish have been blocked. This completely develops through the policies of the government that ignore the non-self. Despite this, those who are on the side of the poor, the oppressed and the ignored people continue to perform their art. We are trying to evaluate and advance our struggle in the field of culture and arts from this point of view. We ignored the Kurdish people with our representatives and ministers. The government's election campaign was based on this. If we enter the Parliament, we will develop the culture of objecting to all these. We will try to bring this to the public, to expose all the debates that are not on the side of the people, the labor and the workers."

 

'A CHANGE IS NEEDED'

 

Emphasizing that Turkey needs a change, democracy and breathing, Güngören said: “Today, women and LGBT individuals are murdered on the street. The Istanbul Convention was abolished, thus paving the way for these massacres. We think that all of this should change. Together with the Green Left Party, we want to be the only voice against the one-man regime. We are the Green Left party against one-man regime. We have to send this one-man regime, the dictator regime. That's why we say that we will change it together."

 

MA / Rukiye Adıgüzel