Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Co-presidency released a statement remembering victims of the Zergele massacre committed by the Turkish regime in Qandil 4 years ago.

Recalling that an airstrike by the Turkish army had killed 8 Kurdish civilians in the village of Zergele, in Qandil region of southern Kurdistan on August 1, 2015, KCK remembered the victims and reiterated their promise to definitively realize their aspiration; a free and democratic Kurdistan.

The statement by KCK Executive Council Co-presidency said the following;

“Turkish fighter jets have repeatedly bombed Qandil, Behdinan and Xakurke areas, massacring civilians, destroying the homes, vineyards and orchards of the villagers and burning the forests that are among the greatest values of Kurdistan. Today, also, civilian settlements are being bombed and civilians are being massacred in an attempt to evacuate villages. The Turkish state, in the same way it burned to the ground thousands of villages in North Kurdistan in 90’s, is implementing the same policy in Medya Defense Zones and South Kurdistan today. As was the case in North Kurdistan, the Turkish state puts forward the excuse of guerrillas’ freedom struggle. In the past, the regime of Saddam Hussein had bombed and depopulated villages with the excuse of the KDP and PUK. Making up an excuse all the time, all enemies of the Kurdish people have been attacking the Kurdish people and their achievements.

Today, the Turkish state wants to invade South and West Kurdistan, which it considers its own lands, to subject the Kurds to a genocide and to make these areas a place of building Turkish nation. The most concrete examples of this are the occupation operations against Xakurke, Xinere and Behdinan. Bringing his Kurdish hostility to an unprecedented level, AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has openly manifested his intention to invade South Kurdistan as a whole by vowing to take all mountainous terrains and to advance up to the plains. The areas mentioned by Turkish President Erdoğan involve the regions specified by the Turkish delegation during the Lausanne Conference.

The goal of the Turkish state has become clear; to invade South Kurdistan and to turn it into an area for the expansion of Turkish nationalism. The massacre of civilians and the efforts to evacuate villages serve this purpose. In this sense, all the people of Kurdistan should see this goal of the Turkish state, resist against any and all attacks and invasion efforts in any part of Kurdistan, and expel the invaders from their lands. Just like they defended South Kurdistan against DAESH (ISIS), the guerrillas are defending it against the Turkish state and any kind of aggression today. In this regard, the people of South Kurdistan should take sides with the struggle developed by the guerrilla against the Turkish invasion state, and fight to protect the gains achieved in South Kurdistan at the cost of very heavy prices.”