After the trustees assigned by the Turkish government to the municipalities held by the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) removed the Kurdish inscriptions at public institutions and shops, they have begun to tear down the monuments and sculptures that constitute a value for the Kurdish population. ANF ​​spoke with the writer, researcher and politician Nazım Kök about this destruction.

Pointing out the existence of a colonialist and denialist system in Kurdistan lands, Kök stated that; "The Kurds have fought against this system for their identities. The systems have committed massacres, exile and arrests against the Kurdish people and against their rightful and honorable resistance. Since the founding of the Republic until today, we have witnessed many incidents, such as the rebellion of Sheikh Sais, Seyid Rıza and Geliye Zilan. These incidents have brought about awakening and understanding and made the Kurdish struggle even more determined.”

Stressing that the Turkish state resorted to massacres again today like the politics of the 90s, Kök continued; “For example, in Kurdish cities like Şırnak, Cizre and Nusaybin, massacres were perpetrated on the day of Newroz which Kurds see as a day of resistance. All this has happened because of the attitude based on the denial of the Kurdish identity and intolerance towards the existence of the Kurds."

They demolished the Newroz Monument and set up a clock tower

In Nusaybin, during the Newroz celebrations in 1992, government forces opened fire on the population, killing dozens of people. Kök as a witness says: "On Newroz day, civilians were crushed by tanks or shot with weapons and dozens of civilians were killed.

In 2013, the then Mayor Ayşe Gökkan erected a memorial for the victims of the 1992 Newroz massacre. The trustee assigned to the Municipality of Nusaybin demolished this monument and erected a clock tower in its place. The bust of Uğur Kaymaz in Kızıltepe, the bust of Sheikh Said and the monument of Roboskî in the Rojava Park in Amed, the memorial of the Kurdish politician Orhan Doğan in Cizre - as well as the statue of the Kawa the Blacksmith in Afrin are just a few examples of destroyed monuments. This destructive rage not only points to intolerance towards the Kurdish people, it also aims to erase their memory and destroy their historical symbols. "

The people of Nusaybin have shown their attitude in the elections

"These acts of the Turkish state are an expression of its phobia of the Kurdish people and their hatred of the Kurdish identity," says Kök and continues:

"The Kurdish people, despite all oppression, all extortion, continue breathing in the awareness of all events. Yes, it may be that the response of the people is a bit quieter, but that does not mean that the Kurdish people are intimidated or accept certain things, on the contrary, they have developed an even more mature, consistent and clear attitude.

The people of Nusaybin, despite all the pain and oppression they have suffered at the hands of the state during the past three years, have shown a clear, upright and determined attitude in the elections. The Kurdish people do not forget, they are not afraid and they are not silent. They just wait for the moment, the time and the place to express themselves democratically. For the political identity of the Kurdish people, which stands for freedom and democracy, has matured for a long time. The Kurds are deeply bound up with their identity, language and history and have organized themselves."