KCK Executive Council co-chair Cemil Bayık participated in the Special Program broadcast on Stêrk TV and made evaluations about the developments in Kurdistan, Turkey and the Middle East.

Part one of this interview can be read here

The AKP conducts its politics based on the ‘Submission Plan’ that it has been putting into action against the Kurdish people since 2015. They have been going back and forth between NATO and Russia, but recently also held talks in several Arab countries. How do you evaluate this?

We see every day on the news that the fascist AKP-MHP is starving all the people in Turkey. They have condemned people to poverty. They are conducting a politics of deception based on lies and demagoguery. Thus, they try to hide the plight of the people. Because the AKP-MHP knows that when the people realize this, they will not be able to stay in power any longer. They also deceive the people with empty words such as, ‘There is terrorism.’, ‘There is separatism.’ or ‘The Kurds will tear Turkey apart, they will destroy us. That's why we have to defend ourselves.’ By deceiving and scaring the people on the one side and by constant war on the other side, they try to stay in power.

Outside Turkey, they also pursue such a policy. By referring to Ottoman history, they promise to take back the land of the Ottomans. That is why the Turkish state does not have much credibility in the international arena. Since they have invested all their resources in the war, their economy has collapsed and their politics is in a deadlock. They are now making the people pay the bill for this. Every day, they announce price hike after price hike. The only thing people care about nowadays is how to live, how to keep their children alive. The AKP-MHP is consciously pursuing this policy and wants the people to only care about bread so that they forget about the other things and the AKP-MHP can maintain its power. Again, they are taking advantage of the lack of opposition in Turkey. There is no opposition to explaining this policy of the government to the public, to educate the public with regards to this issue. This is one of the main problems in Turkey right now.

Therefore, the Labor and Freedom Alliance needs to make society understand the problems created by the government. It must organize and mobilize society on this basis. Because apart from the Labor and Freedom Alliance, there is no other opposition in Turkey that can do this. If they make the people understand the situation in the country, organize and mobilize them, the people will rise up. Because the people are not satisfied with this government, they oppose it. If the Labor and Freedom Alliance is able to make use of this, the AKP-MHP government will not be able to cause so much trouble to the people of Turkey anymore. They are oppressing the people heavily every single day. The people are even in need of drinking water and even their electricity is often cut off. Our people in Kurdistan are being martyred in deliberate accidents with armored vehicles every single day. But no one holds anyone to account. The poor have become poorer and the rich have become richer. Hunger, plunder and oppression are increasing every day, while nature is being destroyed.

The Turkish state recently started to cut down trees in the [Akbelen] forest [in Southwest Turkey]. Even an 88-year-old woman who clung herself to a tree so they wouldn't cut it down, was taken away by the police. They are eliminating human life. They know no limit and encourage rape, massacres and the destruction of human life. A policy of especially using heroin and prostitution against women and young people can be seen in Kurdistan. They also encourage spying in Kurdistan. And people are constantly getting arrested and tortured. That is why the forces of labor and democracy have to focus on all these problems. It is their task to uncover this situation and to show society who is responsible for it. Then, the people themselves will take action.

The AKP-MHP government has become weak but still tries everything to look strong. The problems in Turkey are increasing day by day. This is not just an economic crisis, there is also a social, political and moral crisis which they are not able to solve. They aim to get out of this crisis by creating fake agendas and by selling everything they can. There is nothing left they haven't sold. The Turkish state has gone to many different countries to solve its monetary crisis. But this will not lead to any real solutions. They cannot solve the problems unless they give up the dirty war they are waging against the Kurdish people. What has to be understood is, that the root of all these problems lies in the war that is being waged against the Kurdish people. If  Turkish society wants to get rid of their problems, they must tell the AKP-MHP that it is enough, and stop this war. They need to accept the existence of the Kurdish people and its demands, change their policies towards the Kurds and solve the problems through dialogue. Turkey cannot get out of the crisis in any other way.

Nine years ago, the Islamic State [ISIS] committed a massacre against the Yazidi people. The guerrilla fighters of the HPG and YJA Star came to rescue Shengal [Sinjar] and thus prevented further massacres. Do you have any message on the anniversary of the 74th genocide against the Yazidi people?

Our Yazidi people have experienced 74 genocides. The purpose of the 74th genocide was to exterminate all Yazidis through genocide. But they did not fully achieve this goal, because the PKK prevented this. Even before the genocide, Rêber Apo instructed our movement to protect our Yazidi people. If our 12 friends who went to Şengal as a first group, had not intervened against ISIS, if the forces of YPG, YPJ and HPG had not gone there and if a corridor had not been opened, ISIS would have carried out a genocide against the whole Yazidi people.

The Yazidi people cannot live anywhere else than on their own land in Şengal. They can still live there today because of the intervention of the guerrilla forces of the PKK as well as of the YPG and YPJ forces. This intervention prevented the completion of the genocide. IS was going to slaughter everybody they caught and displace all others, thus making a return impossible. If the intervention of our friends had not happened, the Yazidis would not exist anymore today. Because once you leave your land, you can no longer survive. This danger was averted and a high price had to be paid. But as a result, today, the people in Şengal continue to live according to their identity, religion and values.

Today, our Yazidi people are stronger than they were before the 74th genocide. There are still many problems that have to be solved, e.g. the attacks by the Turkish state and the Barzanis. But despite all these problems, the Yazidi people have their own institutions today and can defend themselves. They have formed a very important alliance on this basis, which needs to be strengthened even more in order to achieve a solution for Şengal. Achieving a status for Şengal and the Yazidi people is important for them. There are also peoples and beliefs other than Yazidis within this alliance.

I would like to take this opportunity to honor the martyrs of our Yazidi people. Without these martyrs and the resistance, the Yazidi people might not exist today. The situation of not only Yazidis but also Kurds and other peoples in the Middle East would be very different. That is why this resistance has created new values not only for the Yazidis, but also for other peoples and humanity as a whole. Therefore, once again, I salute our Yazidi people and congratulate them on their struggle. I would like to pay my respects to them and encourage them to believe in themselves and to further strengthen the alliance they have established. If they continue to struggle on this basis in a determinate and courageous way, they will definitely achieve their goals.