Şahin: Democracy will not come until isolation in Imralı is lifted

DEM Party Amed Provincial co-chair Abbas Şahin said that the Kobanê Case was aimed at ending the Kurdish movement and that they would not step back. "This system must be destroyed. There is no democracy until the isolation is lifted."

At the decision hearing of the Kobanê Case, politicians were given heavy penalties. Reactions to the prison sentences given in the Kobanê Conspiracy Case in Kurdistan and Turkey continue.

Speaking to ANF, Abbas Şahin, Amed Provincial co-chair of the People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), said: "When we look at the pressures that a century-old state tradition has exerted on the Kurdish people, there is nothing surprising. Because we are constantly faced with a political conspiracy. As you know, this is a method implemented by those who insist on the insolubility of the Kurdish question. While ISIS mercenaries were being unleashed on the peoples of the Middle East, one of the biggest aims was to prevent the people of Kurdistan, which was divided into four parts a hundred years ago, from gaining their own status. It became clear that we were faced with a method that tried to solve the Kurdish question through war.

In 2014, political genocide turned into physical genocide, and for the first time, the Kurdish people living in four parts of Kurdistan acted together in the face of the massacres committed by ISIS in Shengal. Thanks to the struggle of the Kurds, ISIS was repelled and eliminated. As you know, while it was being removed, the international community had to take action according to the reaction to be given. In this movement, the Kurdish people protested democratically both in the four parts and all over the world, and attracted all the powers of the world here."

'The only goal is to end Kurdish politics'

Şahin continued: "There was a decision taken in 2014. This decision was a destruction plan. When we look at the historical process of the collapse plan, we see that the rebellions that took place for a hundred years were analyzed very seriously. As a result of these analyses, we see that serious work has been put forward to make the points where the state has failed to be more successful.

This destruction plan had military, political and social dimensions. When ISIS was defeated in Kobanê, everyone said this. While the Kobanê Conspiracy Case was being created, it was thought of as a revenge case, but this is not something that can be taken so lightly as to be considered a revenge case. We have seen that this is the result of a century-old state policy of assimilation. ISIS committed a physical genocide in Shengal, and in response, a conspiracy case was put in motion. Because there was a very democratic reaction in Turkey and in the region. However, various ways and methods have been tried to criminalize these reactions, in particular using paramilitary forces. As you know, more than 50 people lost their lives during this period. The government turned this situation into constant propaganda. It was never taken into consideration that the majority of those who died were Kurds, members of the HDP, or part of the Kurdish political movement. A fiction was proposed to destroy the Kurdish political movement by managing perception over this."

'The legitimacy of the Kurdish movement was targeted'

Şahin added: "We saw the beginning of a political genocide operation after 2014. Especially with the shelving of the solution process, we saw the beginning of an aggravated isolation process. What was the reason for this isolation process? As the isolation of Mr. Öcalan was aggravated and his communication with the outside was cut off, his thoughts and words could not reach society, and as a result, a fiction was made to strangle and destroy the Kurdish political movement. This situation was clearly exposed in the political genocide operations. The Kurds were punished, and those who acted with them to isolate the Kurds were also punished. When we look at the Kobanê Conspiracy Case, we are faced with a structure that does not implement its own law. There is a farce court, an elected court panel. When we look at the decisions taken by this court panel, they were given with sentences prepared by special secretaries, especially in the corridors of the palace. They tried to legitimize the punishments given to the Kurds with various discourses. However, we see that the sentences imposed on Kurds have no legal validity. It is a lawsuit filed to delegitimize the Kurdish political movement worldwide. We have seen at every hearing that it is not a legal case. It was not the Kurdish political movement that was on trial, but the Turkish state of law itself. Because it was an illegal case, everyone predicted that a penalty would be given."

'Kurdish people will not give up'

Şahin said: "The Kobanê Conspiracy Case had no legal basis. The political movement was put on trial to be suppressed. The Kurdish people, who carried out the Kurdish political movement, paid such a high price that they were forced to form a structure that would forget them. Despite everything, the Kurdish people do not give up their democratic demands and democratic politics. Democracy cannot come to Turkey without a democratic solution to the Kurdish question and without ending the isolation of the Imrali. All our friends who were tried in the case also said this. But Turkey does not need this democracy because they are trying to rule the people with a regime of oppression and force. However, no matter what, this political system must be destroyed. Our friends were sentenced to decades in prison, but they never backed down and made defenses that challenged the court panel. This trial is a political trial and its consequences will always be political. They may punish people, but ideas and thoughts will last forever. And our fight on this issue will continue."