For several weeks, parents have been sitting in front of the headquarters of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Amed (Diyarbakir) claiming that their children have been forcibly taken to the Kurdish guerilla in the mountains.

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Executive Committee Member and People’s Defense Central Headquarters (HSM) Commander Murat Karayılan commented on these staged protests in a special program for the Denge Welat radio.

We give here translated excerpts from the interview.

"Recently, a campaign so to say has been launched against the Kurdish people and their achievements which they want to make into a target after labelling them as PKK. The legal activities and works of the Kurdish people, for instance their legal organizations and institutions in Turkey and Europe, HDP, democratic forces that side with a solution to the Kurdish question, Rojava Revolution forces, Yazidi resistance fighters in Shengal, are all labeled as PKK and declared a target. With a multifaceted campaign based solely on lies, a perception is intended to be created that bases solely on lies fabricated at the table.

The PKK is an independent phenomenon, there is no connection between it and such organizations and structures like the HDP. The liberation struggle of the Kurdish people and the struggle for democracy of the peoples in Turkey have united together with numerous organizations, parties and individuals under the umbrella of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK). From this democratic alliance of peoples emerged the HDP.

Claiming that the HDP stands automatically for the PKK is a big lie and reverses the facts. They must prove this if they have any proof. They are producing these lies just to consolidate the basis of their genocidal policy, to suppress the HDP and make it the target of attacks.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey who controls the intelligence, army and police of state, claimed that HDP municipalities pass on municipal money to the PKK, failing to provide any proof. As President, he has every opportunity to provide evidence.  However, since proof that even a single lira of public funds has landed in our cash register does not exist, it looks as if Erdoğan is nothing more than the biggest liar and slanderer in Turkey.

No one is abducted to join the guerrilla

Participation in our ranks is self-chosen. The discourse of "abduction" is primarily based on a lie of Turkish colonialism and special war. We are an ideological movement based on voluntary participation. We do not receive anyone against his will. Every member, whether Kurd or a citizen of another nation, joins our movement with his own will. This state has violated its own laws and suspended the co-mayors of three major cities. They staged a coup against the will of the Kurdish people. There have been reactions in Kurdistan, Turkey, and even the rest of the world. The AKP, however, has difficulty maintaining its genocidal policy and therefore resorts to stagings of this kind. They organised people to sit in front of the HDP headquarters in order that their injustice against this party be overshadowed.

HDP is the wrong place

It may be that some of these mothers are in good intentions, others are not. One thing is clear, the sit-in action in front of the HDP headquarters is a machination by the AKP, MIT and the police. It is a special warfare method, a dirty scenario that people should become aware of and avoid. If they are really looking for their loved ones, the HDP is the wrong place.

It is not in the power of the HDP to ask us to send Person X home. We do not decide on what to do with our militants on outside instructions. I can say very clearly: these families could also spend the next ten years in front of the HDP headquarters, but nobody will come back. This state spends millions of liras to kill even one of our militants. For hours, dozens of airplanes circle in the air to meet one of our friends. Now, over such a dirty scenario as is the case in Amed, should our militants return home? Someone who joined the Kurdish liberation struggle becomes a fighter of his people. It is an honor and an award. A person who has gained the consciousness of a freedom fighter will not value calls such as these. Neither for money, nor for anything else.

Do not embarrass your children

From the press, we learned that a political prisoner made a suicide attempt when he saw his mother in the media at the protest. It seems that the prisoner Mecnun Akkoyun is imprisoned for alleged PKK membership. So why did he try to end his life? He must have regretted that his mother got into such a situation. The people in front of the HDP headquarters should stay away from things that embarrass their children. It does not fit the ideal of a militant’s mother to serve as a means of special warfare. If the mothers want to do something for their children, the path they have taken is the wrong one.

Look at the Saturday Mothers instead

Look, for almost 30 years in Istanbul there has been the initiative of the Saturday mothers whose children and relatives were indeed abducted and killed by the State. If we are to talk about abduction, this is indeed the case. For a quarter of a century, these mothers have been making public their enforced disappearances every Saturday with appropriate evidence. And what did the AKP/MHP regime do? It banned the most justifiable of protests and forcibly evicted the Saturday Mothers from their ancestral rally site, Galatasaray Square. Now they are continuing their action before the Human Rights Association IHD. Why does not the Turkish press see that? Why does not Erdoğan talk about the pain of these mothers? Why is the special war media not taking people from the HDP headquarters off their agenda? These facts tell a lot about the reality. The Turkish state is hypocritical and measures double standards. It wants to subjugate the Kurdish people and commit genocide. Only those who are in the service of this state are granted the right to life. That's the character of the Turkish state. The mothers in front of the HDP building should realize that they can achieve nothing with their action there. They will not get results.

Removal of Ahmet Türk should make everyone think

Ahmet Türk, one of the removed mayors, has been active in politics for 50 years and is known for his tireless commitment to democracy and peace. For years he has been calling for lasting peace and promoting the unity of the Kurdish and Turkish people. If the Turkish state does not even acknowledge Ahmet Türk, it will not accept anyone else. That anyone like Ahmet Türk is removed from his post and deprived of the opportunity to be politically active, should make every Kurd think.

At a time when the HDP is being attacked to a very large extent, we do not find it appropriate to criticize it. If the state wanted only to destroy the PKK, legal politics would have a free hand. However, this is a full-scale attack of denial and annihilation that is also aimed at smashing the HDP. That's why we have shelved our review first.

But let's take a look back: maybe it would not have ended up like this if the HDP had dedicated itself to their tasks in time. Countless party officials are in jail at the moment. They are all accused of having supported the so-called ‘trenches policy’ during the urban resistance for self-rule. That's not true, the HDP did not support that process. On the contrary, the HDP created hesitation and put people in a dilemma. As a result, the people were confused. Many young people remained alone in the face of the enemy. Şehîd (Martyr) Çiyager and 60 of his people, for example, were abandoned in the middle of Amed, in Sur.

Now that the state needs legitimacy to oust the mayors, it resorts to its well-known claims that the HDP had transported weapons here and there and supported the trenches policy. That's not right, the HDP has clearly acted contrary. As I just mentioned, we did not voice this criticism due to intense attacks of the enemy. All statements made by the Turkish state officials against the HDP are lies and have nothing to do with the truth.

Had the HDP correctly interpreted the true intent behind the attacks of the genocidal colonial state and had not left the youth to their fate, we might not have ended up at this point today. Everyone should draw a lesson from this situation. One can still plead with this state so burningly and demand peace, but they will not understand it.  Instead, the unity and organization among our people should be taken as basis and the popular resistance should be enhanced. This is the way to achieve a result, to succeed. Here we see, they close all the ways to do politics, respect no rights and laws, and even trample on their anti-democratic state laws. One single instruction results in putting aside all the laws of the state.

Numerous politicians and deputies are behind bars. What is their crime? Nothing. Their only offense is to be Kurdish or to reclaim the Kurds. This is the point. We have a racist fascist regime before us. This regime seeks to destroy all the existence and achievements of the Kurdish people. This is why they advance this much on politicians. For this reason, we say that ‘our people should reclaim the HDP’. We don’t say that they are everything. They, too, have deficiencies. If there existed appropriate circumstances, there could be many issues to criticize but while this fascist regime targets all the achievements of the HDP and attacks daily, the Kurdish people should certainly claim the politicians they themselves elected. This is what needs to be done now.”

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