Friday 30st of October, Van, East Anatolia.
After having visited the governmental AK Party, we hurried to the headquarters of the DTP - Demokratik Toplum Partisi (Democratic Society Party). The DTP considers itself as social-democratic fighting for equality and freedom, and especially the rights of the Kurdish people in terms of identity, cultural and language rights. The final aim for the DTP is a self ruling model for the Kurds. The Kurds constitute the largest people in the world without a country.
We went up through a narrow old building and were seated in a cold, decayed and dark room – where the only thing lighting up was the red rose of the DTP (DTPs official symbol) and the burning idealism in the party members’ eyes. As we sat on the dirty plastic chairs our prominent colleague from ROJ TV (the only independent Kurdish TV channel) joined us.
After having learnt Turkish for the last days we were glad to be enriched with a new language - the difficult Kurdish. On principle the DTP only speaks Kurdish at their meetings. Luckily we had our beloved translator and guide, Sami, with us, who got quite a challenge explaining the hard struggle of the DTP to us.
At fearless eye level
DTP met us at eye level contrary to the AKP earlier, where a high stage separated the speakers from the crowd. The speaker Ibrahim Demir, member of executive board and with a hard history about 5 years of prison and no job possibilities because of his support to the PKK, started speaking very fast and full of commitment.
DTP was founded in 2005 and since then they have tried to build a dialogue with the Turkish state. Within recent years many parties fighting for the Kurds’ rights like the DTP have been shut down by the Turkish government for being against the Turkish Constitution, and now the DTP have a case against them. However, the party members seem fearless in their struggle.
The DTP are having a hard time doing their political activities. During the last elections 52 party members were arrested. The DTP is by far the biggest party in the region with a great majority in the respective councils, however, their headquarter is a dump compared to the AKP headquarter – the DTP has tremendously little financial support. The financial source is open for the AKP because the Turkish state uses the governmental party in the area to secure itself. The only ones supporting the DTP are the people in the streets, as Ibrahim Demir says.
Quite a lot of woman were among the party members contrary to the AKP, where the only present woman delivered magazines. As we went through the building we stumbled on a meeting room for the Women’s organization, where the DTP particularly focus on women’s rights.
We got a bit surprised when we heard that the DTP has relations with the PKK- Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanz (Kurdistan Workers Party). This could be a problematic allegiance because of the fact that the PKK are on international lists of terror organizations. Though Ibrahim Demir explained that PKK is the fundamental organization for the all the conscious Kurds and has been an active guerilla movement because to them, there were no other possible ways of fighting for many years.
No real changes without the DTP
The AKP government has carried out some reforms called “the Kurdish initiative”, and that shows the failure of the Turkish assimilation politics over the last decades because the government has now realized that those politics had no future. However, the DTP doubts the sincerity in these reforms, because the AKP totally ignores the DTP and the Kurdish opinions in their initiative. According to the speaker the government uses a “do what we say or you get nothing ” procedure against the Kurdish population. The government cannot make serious democracy reforms without including the DTP. If the changes are to be persistent and sincere, a change of constitution is necessary.
Ibrahim Demir ended the meeting with the message; Be aware of us! Do not let us alone in our struggle. Leaving the room we heard a whispering voice saying:”Biji serok Apo!” (Long live Abdullah!). A courageous feeling of hard struggle warmed-up our souls as we left the cool room.
Written by Jasmin & Niels
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TL;DR.
ReplyDeleteSrsly th0, d1z w4s s0 gr4t, liek oh my g0d. Liek, I dno w4t t0 say, liek niels and j4sm1n, u guise k1ck @§§. I m34n AKP li3k t0t4lly sux, so eye can c why u guyse fite for DTP, so aweomse, lulz. K33p 1t r3al, 4-evah h0m13s.
ReplyDeleteOkay, since the gentlemen in my immediate vicinty has deemed the above portion of text, as beeing too inaccesible and technological in nature, I have voluntarity decided to paraphrase certain elements of my statement, in order to broaden the availability to the general public, and thus increase participation and debation of the post.
ReplyDeleteGiving the geopolitical and socioeconomical situation of contemporary Turkey, I can certainly see the need for a proper, balanced covered of parties fighting for minority rights. Here it is selfevident that Niels Frovin and Jasmin whats-his-face are providing an invaluable service to the community at large, by sharing the thoughts and feelings of DTP as political organization. The controversial allegiance with the PKK is covered only fleetingly though, and since this seems to be the apparent fundament of the article, this leaves me with a wanting of more information. The PKK are controversial, both with regards to individual and organizational work, so a more scepticist attiude could be applied with great effect. I'm left with the impression that the authors are far-left anarchist, with little regard for the well-being of the common man, a political path that involves many problems, none of which they seem to adress.
Still, the paper is well-written and seems to be funded in actual arguments, rather than random rablings as a certain Hans Henriksens seem to be.
All-in-all above-average, but not amazing.
Anarki eller kaos! -Mikas
ReplyDeleteAnarki ER kaos! -Hans
jeg bløder! -Niels
Lol, drenge, jeres post er glimrende, tag jer ikke af mit pis :)
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