Besê Erzincan, coordinating member of the Kurdistan Women's Community (KJK), spoke in an ANF interview about the earthquake disaster in Kurdistan, Turkey and Syria.

How do you rate the earthquake catastrophe in Kurdistan and the picture that emerged afterwards?

Many cities in Turkey and north-eastern Syria were affected by this earthquake, including Pazarcık, Elbistan, Maraş, Malatya, Adıyaman, Antakya, Amed, Sehba, Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia. According to unofficial data, there are hundreds of thousands dead and wounded. The destruction, loss of life and migration following this earthquake, dubbed the Catastrophe of the Century, deeply affects all of humanity, our people, our friends and all of us. On this basis, we express our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this earthquake disaster and wish the injured a speedy recovery.

Reality of state and government exposed

This terrible earthquake has rexposed the reality of the state and government of Turkey in a very clear way. The founding principle of the Republic of Turkey is based on the policy of Turkicization and Sunniization of all peoples and faiths, especially Armenians and Kurds. Today, under the guise of political Islam, this fascist, monistic, nationalistic, religious and sexist state mentality has dogmatized and hardened even further and reached its climax with the AKP government as a special war government. The approach taken under the leadership of the fascist Erdoğan to Turkify Anatolia and Mesopotamia and expand the old Ottoman, expansionist policies in these regions is well known.

Since the AKP-MHP government has made a name for itself in this context as being hostile to people, women and religion and sees this as a principle of existence, it considers it its right to carry out all sorts of ugly practices in order to remain in power. It will not leave its policies of genocide, denial and extermination, no matter how severe the societal catastrophes. With great dishonesty and hypocrisy, state officials are now declaring that the earthquake catastrophe is destiny. However, it is not destiny. It is not destiny that leads people to death. It's not the earthquake. It is the government's anti-social, anti-grassroots policies, negligence, theft and corruption. The AKP-MHP government with its fascist nationalism is dividing and fragmenting society and turning people against each other. At the same time, it demands that society, shaped with extreme nationalism, turn a blind eye to the genocidal policy it is pursuing against the Kurds. It seeks to perpetuate its power by trying to profit from hostility toward the Kurdish people.

This inhuman government has enriched itself with its opportunistic, profit-oriented policy. It has propagated a fascist-nationalist discourse to intensify the exploitation of society. Through its profit-oriented and war-based economy, it has enriched a handful of male-dominated monopolists and impoverished society.

The government deliberately did not intervene in Kurdistan

The AKP-MHP government deliberately did not intervene after the earthquake in North Kurdistan. Although the first hours and days after an earthquake are vital, nothing serious has been done and government agencies have not been mobilized to the region in any way. Because the population in the earthquake region is predominantly Kurdish and Arab Alevis. Our people were clearly and intentionally left under the rubble.

It is well known that the region lies on the earthquake line. Earthquakes are extreme natural disasters. The level of technology that humanity has reached, however, is capable of bringing the death toll to zero. In countries like Japan, for example, earthquakes are stronger than in North Kurdistan. Despite this, the number of injured and dead remains extremely low. The fascist AKP-MHP government is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, both with its settlement policy, urban planning and receivership regime before the earthquake and its grossly inadequate aid policy after the earthquake.

How do you rate the behavior of the AKP/MHP government after the earthquake?

The fascist government is not only responsible for the deaths and massacres that followed the earthquake. At the same time, it kidnapped orphans and handed them over to sects and state institutions and prevented and stole incoming aid. People who set off to help the earthquake victims are met with distrust and hatred. They are mistreated and attempts are made to dissuade them. In Pazarcık, Maraş, Adıyaman, Hatay, the Alevi Kurdish and Arab population should leave their places of residence and emigrate. The state not only fails to provide assistance; it exacerbates the situation. This policy is carried out openly and secretly and deeply hurts society.

In Turkey, never before has the state been so hostile towards society as a whole, and especially towards our people, as under the AKP government. The fascist Erdoğan government tried to take advantage of this situation in an ugliest, despicable, cruel and ruthless way at a time when the population was suffering the greatest pain. This is the end of humanity. The fact that the AKP thinks only of its own supporters, even in the worst of situations, when people are starving and freezing, shows how profoundly immoral it is.

The Erdoğan government has taken the most atrocious measures against society since it came to power. For example, before this earthquake, an amnesty for the construction of buildings was issued several times. Thousands of contractors went unpunished despite committing every irregularity. Turkey has developed into a paradise of lies, fraud, the mafia, usury, lawlessness, and arbitrariness. Already, the illegal and unjust appointment of colonial administrators for the towns and communities in North Kurdistan has shown the audacity and greed of this fascist power. It has denied society a will of its own and has relied on the power of the state to do so.

No help can be expected from the state

Therefore, to expect the bloodiest government in the history of Turkey to help the peoples, the Kurds, the Arabs, the Alevis and the women after the earthquake is really naive. We should not forget that what a government has done in the past is the basic indicator of what it will do now and in the future.

The AKP government, with its fascist, colonialist policies, has plunged Turkey into great destruction and tragedy in every respect. Although the possibility of an earthquake was noted by scientists in advance, no action was taken. On the one hand, the Erdoğan government did not take any measures and made no preparations. On the other hand, it did not let the momentum and initiative of society, local initiatives, civil society organizations and opposition parties come to the rescue and confiscated the collected aid, making the massacre even worse. Therefore, Erdoğan, Bahçeli, Soylu and other ministers at the head of the fascist government should resign immediately. However, they continue to make the most shameless statements as if nothing had happened, and on top of that, make the most serious allegations against the opposition. With this earthquake and its results, the ugly and cruel face of the AKP government was revealed. The people of Turkey, the women, are going to give the necessary answer to this fascist government in the elections. The AKP will be buried under the rubble.