Lausanne conference: The existence, language and status of the Kurds should be recognized

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  • 13:54 18 September 2023
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AMED - In the final declaration of the Lausanne conference held in Amed, it was emphasized that a new beginning should be made for the solution of the Kurdish problem and a call was made to recognize the existence, language and status of the Kurds with the new constitution.
 
Democratic Society Congress (DTK), Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Greens and Left Future Party (Green Left Party), Partiya Azadî, Kurdistan Communist Party (KKP), Kurdistan Socialist Party (PSK) and People and Freedom Party (PIA), Yesterday, a conference titled "Kurds and Kurdistan in the Centenary of the Treaty of Lausanne" was held in Amed(Diyarbakır) with the participation of many intellectuals and writers. The final declaration of the conference was announced today at the Southeastern Journalists Association. Speaking at the press conference, DBP Co-Chair Saliha Aydeniz said that the gains of the Kurdish people are prevented. Aydeniz also said that they will fight for national unity.
 
The Kurdish version of the final declaration of the conference was read by KKP Spokesperson Nusrettin Maçin, and the Turkish version was read by PIA Chairperson Mehmet Kamaç.
 
FINAL DECLARATION
 
Drawing attention that the geography of Kurdistan was divided into four with the Treaty of Lausanne, the following statements were made: "The Treaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923 is the name of darkness, endless oppression, genocide and oppression for our people. We do not recognize the Treaty of Lausanne, in which our people are not represented and their will is ignored, and we strongly condemn those who signed and implemented the agreement.
 
The Treaty of Lausanne did not only deprive the Kurdish nation of its legitimate national democratic rights and state opportunities. It also sowed the seeds of hostility and hatred in the Middle East, leading to a century of instability, war and conflict. The Kemalists, who asked for the support of the Kurds in the name of religious brotherhood during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, said that the state to be established would be a joint state of the Turks and Kurds, and stated that they represented the Turks and Kurds in Lausanne, forgot all their words immediately after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne. 38-39 of the Treaty of Lausanne. They did not even fulfill the language rights stated in the articles. The Ankara government, which had its existence officially recognized with the Treaty of Lausanne, declared the republic three months later on October 29, 1923. The declaration of the Republic legalized and formalized the rejection and denial against the Kurdish people. The Republic of Turkey was founded on a monist and racist basis, on the basis of Turkishness, ignoring the multi-national, multicultural, multi-religious structure of the geography on which it was founded.
 
THE KURDISH PEOPLE WERE DENIED
 
The constitution made in 1924 introduced a concept of citizenship that denied the existence, language and culture of the Kurdish people and considered everyone living in Turkey as a Turk. The 'Takrir-i Sükûn' issued in 1925 and the 'Eastern Reform Plan', which was prepared and implemented secretly, formed the basis of the military regimes, General Inspectorates and the state of emergency system that would continue in Kurdistan for a century. They officially banned the Kurdish language. The state aimed to make Kurdistan non-Kurdish, and committed mass murders to achieve this goal.
 
SEVERE ISOLATION IS APPLIED
 
The Kemalist regime suppressed the uprising and resistance of the Kurdish people for national freedom in Koçgiri in 1921, Şeyh Said in 1925, Ağrı, Zilan in 1928-30, and Dersim in 1938, using all kinds of means and methods, including massacres. It implemented a policy of cultural genocide against the Kurdish language and culture that lasted for a hundred years. This racist standardization policy has been continued as a state strategy for a hundred years using different forms and tools, but its essence has not changed.
 
Today, attacks against the gains of our people continue in the Kurdistan Federated Region and Autonomous Rojava. In Northern Kurdistan, the will of our people is usurped and trustees are appointed to local governments, Kurdistan parties are trapped with the threat of closure, uninterrupted operations are carried out against political cadres, and a severe isolation policy that disregards all kinds of laws is implemented.
 
SOCIAL POLARIZATION INCREASED
 
The Turkish state also used all Kurdish uprisings to crush its own opposition. It prevented the development of the democratic movement and the organization of society in Turkey. This caused the political structure in Turkey to become authoritarian, the rise of racism and social polarization to increase. At this point, Turkey has entered a multifaceted and deep crisis due to its anti-Kurdish policy of violence and conflict. The economic structure has collapsed, the political system is blocked, and there is a great corruption in moral values.
 
4 TRILLION DOLLARS SPENT IN 40 YEARS
 
4 trillion dollars have been spent due to the conflict environment in the last 40 years alone. The huge resource in question has been consumed for the understanding of war, weapons and violence. The resource in question is more than five times larger than Turkey's annual national income. The lack of resolution of the Kurdish issue deepens political instability in both Turkey and the Middle East. One hundred years of experience shows that unless the Kurdish issue is resolved peacefully and on the basis of equality, peace, stability and prosperity cannot be achieved in the region. The solution of the Kurdish issue in Türkiye and the region has become the key to peace and stability.
 
100 YEARS OF INJUSTICE MUST END
 
A century of historical injustice against the Kurdish people must end. Like every other people, the Kurdish people have the right to live freely and honorably in their own country. This right complies with international universal law and is an indispensable condition for lasting peace. At this point, the anti-Kurdish monist regime, based on the denial of the existence of the Kurdish people, has become obsolete. Establishing a pluralist, decentralized and democratic system suitable for Turkey's multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-religious and religious structure has become a burning need.
 
KURDS AND THEIR LANGUAGE SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED
 
This is possible, above all, by making a new constitution, which means a new social contract. The national democratic rights of the Kurdish people, which derive from being a nation, must be secured as a whole. In the new constitution to be made; The existence and identity of the Kurdish people should be officially recognized, the Kurdish language should be accepted as the language of education from kindergarten to university and should be recognized as the second official language alongside Turkish. A democratic ground must be created that paves the way for Kurds to organize and express themselves freely under the names Kurd and Kurdistan. The Kurdish people should be granted a status that will allow them to govern themselves in Kurdistan. Kurdish names of settlements, geographical and historical places whose names have been changed in Kurdistan should be returned. The grave sites of historical Kurdish figures whose graves have been destroyed or hidden should be disclosed. Thus, the Kurdish people's equal, free and dignified life together with other rights should be legally and socially guaranteed. To the Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian-Syriac, Chaldean, Arab, Azeri and Turkmen people living in Kurdistan; The denialist and oppressive approach towards religions and belief groups such as Alevi-Sunni, Christian, Jewish and Yazidi must end. Ethnic, religious, cultural differences and pluralism in the Kurdistan society should be constitutionally guaranteed as a wealth.
  
STOP HISTORICAL INJUSTICE
 
We call on the signatory states, especially Britain and France, which played an important role in the disintegration of Kurdistan for the second time at the beginning of the last century and left the Kurdish people without status, and who signed the Treaty of Lausanne 1923, to end the historical injustice imposed on the Kurdish people with the Treaty of Lausanne. We invite the UN, the Council of Europe, the EU and other international institutions to support our people's struggle for 'Self-Determination and Overcoming the Lausanne Pressure'.
 
The Kurdish people want to live together in the next hundred years with the peoples of the region, especially the Turkish, Persian and Arab peoples, on the basis of equality in all areas. It struggles not by continuing rejection and denial, but by being recognized with its country and national identity and to create living conditions together on the basis of equal political and geographical status.