In the second part of this interview, Mustafa Karasu, member of the KCK Executive Council, talked about the policy of appointment of trustees and said that it was a "comprehensive genocidal attack."

The first part of this interview can be read here

The appointment of trustees to several municipalities in North Kurdistan is something that has been high on the agenda in recent days and is leading to widespread popular resistance. But this didn’t just start a few days ago. Can you put this into context, also in view of the mentality and policy behind it?

The basis of the trustee policy has been prepared since the beginning. In fact, they wanted to impose it directly after the municipal elections in northern Kurdistan. In Wan (tr. Van), it was prevented and was limited in Colemerg (tr. Hakkari). The trustees are both part of this policy and the result of the policy that has been carried out until now. They want to crush the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom. Nowhere do they want Kurds to govern cities and towns. They do not want a Kurdish will to emerge, even if it is limited. That is why there is such a trustee policy.

They cannot accept that Kurds go to vote, that they elect their representatives, and that they govern themselves. They say that as long as they do not give up their Kurdish identity and their quest for freedom, they do not have the right to govern. They say that the Kurds could never lead a municipality in any world with their culture and language. That they would not allow this. That is why they are carrying out this trustee policy to crush the Kurdish people’s struggle for democracy and freedom. When Kurds elect their representatives, the states take them and appoint trustees instead. They insist so persistently on this policy to dissuade the Kurdish people from their path. They should abandon their thoughts and policies. They have done this so many times and called on the Kurds to give up.

They want to break the will of the Kurdish people and make them give up themselves. They constantly threaten that if their policies are not accepted, if a policy not in line with the AKP-MHP government will be followed, trustees will be appointed. On the one hand, they are trying to create a perception that this process will finally lead to a Kurdish opening. And on the other hand, they are saying, “If you don’t surrender, you will be crushed; we will appoint trustees if you don’t adopt our policies.”

They chose Merdin (tr. Madin) for this reason. They wanted to take Merdin from the DEM party because it is the area from where they wanted to march to Rojava. Even Devlet Bahceli was careful not to say anything negative when talking about Ahmet Turk. Again, 15 days ago, they reconciled the Senayasar family. Ahmet Turk and Erdoğan’s deputy did it together. They chose this place because of the occupation of Rojava. Xelfeti (tr. Halfeti) is a message to Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan]. It is to put pressure on him. And Elih (tr. Batman), of course, is very important in the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom, particularly the women’s struggle. Elih had a woman co-mayor with a high count of votes. They cannot digest it; they want to suppress it too. This is an attack against women’s freedom struggle.

They will continue this. If the struggle does not develop, they will continue. Just the other day, Abdulkadir Selvi said that it will continue and that more trustees are going to be appointed. They will try to usurp Amed (tr. Diyarbakir), Bazid (tr. Doubeyazit), and Wan again too. All Kurdish people need to resist. They should show an attitude and reaction as if trustees have been appointed to all municipalities. Because the trustee policy is not a policy for one city. It is a Kurdish policy. It is a policy of crushing the Kurdish people’s struggle for freedom. All Kurds need to fight against this trustee policy in every city. They should not wait for their turn. If the trusteeship in Wan is to be stopped, if the trusteeship in Amed is to be stopped, then they need to step up their struggle now. Of course, the struggle must be waged together with the democratic forces of Turkey.

We need to call out to them. We have seen the effect of this relationship, this joint struggle in Wan. It is necessary to ensure this while fighting in Kurdistan, and the democratic forces and civil society organizations in Turkey need to take a stand against the trusteeship. The Kurds have significant power in Istanbul; they have significant power in Izmir, Adana, and Antalya. Here, CHP municipalities have won as a result of Kurdish votes. The democratic forces there can easily be mobilized, and they need to be mobilized. Only in this way can the trustees be repelled.

There is a certain struggle at the moment. But it needs to be stepped up even more. It needs to be continued. They estimate that the people will march for a few days, protest for a few days, and then stop. This should not be the case. The Kurdish people must prepare for a continuous struggle. They should not leave any municipality. Municipalities are not places. The Merdin co-chairs and council members should continue their work. They should discuss with the people and decide where and how things should be done.

On this basis, the trustee should be exposed. In this way, the trustee should not be allowed to work; they should be paralyzed. The co-chairs and council presidents should not leave their posts. They should work actively. They should not go and sit at home. They should have such an approach until they kick out the trustees. All democratic organizations should be sensitive about this. They should not accept it. They must show that they do not accept it. So much so that even those who voted for the AKP should be drawn into this struggle. Why do they still vote for the AKP? You can say, “You are Kurdish and still vote for AKP?! This is unacceptable.”

The trustee policy should not be understood as an isolated attack on a single city; as an attack on the DEM Party, it’s a total genocidal attack. This attack is taking place because the Kurdish people demand their identity, freedom, and democracy, something they cannot accept. The attack is directed against this. If there were other Kurds, not DEM Party members, they would have attacked them too. If one insisted on his/her Kurdishness, identity, culture, and language, if he/she serves as a local administrator on this basis, they would have appointed a trustee for him/her too, no matter the political party. In this respect, it is necessary to include other circles other than the Kurds who vote for the DEM Party and to draw them into the struggle.

While evaluating this, we need to draw attention to another issue. So many trustees are being appointed, and there is great resistance against it by the people. Some circles make evaluations saying that while these trustees are being appointed, the solution process can still continue. This is an evaluation that legitimizes and normalizes the trustees. How do they imagine that? That on the one hand, the Kurdish question is being resolved, while on the other, the Kurdish political will is being denied by trustees being appointed? This is not a war between two sides who continue to fight during negotiations. The will of the people is being usurped in the area where the most democracy could be practiced. Those who make such statements should be given the necessary answer.

Now it is also being said that there have been solution processes during conflicts in the world. To legitimize what is going on by saying this is ignorance. It is a blunder to say that the circumstances surrounding the Kurdish question are the same circumstances surrounding the Basque question, and are the same circumstances surrounding the Irish question. It is not the case that the Kurdish question is not being resolved because there are too many political claims. Because Kurdish existence is denied, the problem is not solved, and because the intention is to eradicate the Kurdish language, culture, and identity, the issue is not solved. If this were not the case, if a policy of genocide was not being implemented on the Kurds, if this were not the policy, the mentioned solution processes could have been implemented in Kurdistan. But this is not the reality in Kurdistan.

The Kurdish question is a hundred-year-old question. Of course, there was a Kurdish question before, but it really started with the 24th Constitution. Kurdistan was wanted to be turned into an expansion area for Turkish nationalization. The policy was to Turkify Kurdistan, and this continues till today. Now, what is their approach to the Kurdish question? It is to make Kurds forget their identity, language, and culture. For them, this is the Kurdish question. It is not accepting self-governance. Before the Republic, Kurds governed themselves. There was no constant intervention from outside.

There was Ottoman sovereignty, but they didn’t try to penetrate everything, to intervene in their lives, to intervene in their religion, to intervene in their culture. This happened in a planned way after 1924. They want to destroy the language and culture. What does it mean to destroy a culture and language? It means destroying an identity, committing genocide. Now, Kurds cannot even govern municipalities, let alone work. There is a European charter on local self-determination, but they didn’t even sign it. Why? Because the Kurds would govern their own areas at a certain level. They did not even accept that. Now regarding the Kurdish language. Is there any education? Is Kurdish taught in school?

Are there any opportunities to teach Kurdish? No. Not only that, Kurdish speaking Kurdish even at home has been kind of banned and suppressed. It is said that when children speak Kurdish at school, they are punished. Now, Kurds are gradually forgetting Kurdish. They have forgotten it west of the Euphrates. They forget it in Dersim (tr. Tunceli). Now in many places, the new generation is forgetting its mother tongue. Because there is pressure. People have been beaten and killed for speaking Kurdish. This is oppression. People cannot speak freely and comfortably.

On the other hand, what has Bulent Arinc said regarding language? Why do they make people forget their language? What is the Kurdish question? The Kurdish question is not forgetting their own language. Isn’t it being forgotten right now? Isn’t it already disappearing? This is happening with his policy. It’s happening with genocidal, colonialist policies. The Kurdish language is being forgotten. Isn’t there pressure on culture? They established so many things to support Turkish culture, give all kinds of support through the Ministry of Culture, but ban Kurdish culture. They are destroying a language, destroying a culture. This is the destruction of an identity; it is a genocide. This is the Kurdish question. They don’t even allow a Kurdish municipality to govern itself. This is the Kurdish problem. What do the Kurds want? Kurds want their language not to disappear and to protect their culture and identity. They want these policies of language, culture, and genocide to be abolished.

Now the government speaks about equal citizenship. Kurds can be everything. They say Kurds can become district governors and governors. Even if only in exceptional cases, this does happen. The condition for this is that they discard their own Kurdish identity and language.

Alevis also want equal citizenship. They say there is not a single governor from them. There is not one district governor. Alevis form such a big part of the population, but they are not even hired as civil servants. How are they equal citizens? Kurds are not equal citizens. For a Kurd to be an equal citizen, he/she has to take their identity, culture, and language. If you are a Turk, then they see you as an equal citizen. One is an equal citizen if he/she accepts Turkishness, if he/she gives up his/her language, culture, and identity, and does not struggle for it. But if he/she fights for it, he/she will face the harshest repression. The courts are used as an instrument of repression against them. In this respect, it is clear what the Kurdish problem is.

Let Turkish be the official language. What will be done to ensure that Kurdish is not forgotten? How will this Kurdish language live? Isn’t their policy right now the policy of destroying the Kurdish language? They say Kurds can speak their language at home and on the street. But they use all conceivable forms of repression in all dimensions. They are trying to take the Kurd for a fool. The state opens so many schools to implement its own language and promotes its own culture. But when it comes to Kurds, they can’t even use the word. They say the word Turk includes Kurds. Turk is not an ethnic identity. You can’t fool anyone with that. In the past, for example, there was still talk of the Turkish Huns or the Turkish Uyghurs. Now there is no longer any talk of that either; they only know Turks.

Turkish identity has been made so rigid that it wants to genocide the Kurds. It is not inclusive. It is an identity of genocide. Let me state it again. I mean this for all Kurds, so that they really understand the policy of the Turkish state correctly. They should not deceive themselves. The Turkish state wants to turn Kurdistan into an expansion area for Turkish nationhood. It has not given up on this aim. It wants to Turkify it. Either it will Turkify it culturally, or it wants to change the demography and make it no longer a Kurdish geography. Therefore, if they do not want to give up their Kurdishness, if they do not want to give up their identity, language, and culture, they will resist. The ‘Eastern Reform Plan’ continues to be implemented. The outcome is clear.

The majority of people west of the Euphrates were Kurds. Now there are no Kurds left in Meresh (tr. Kahramanmarash), Meleti (tr. Malatya), and Sewas (tr. Sivas). And those who remain cannot speak Kurdish. This is the Kurdish problem. It is not just a problem; there is a policy of genocide. There is no such thing as equal citizenship. Kurds are not being treated equally. In fact, in this Turkish state, inequality is a constitutional rule.