The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) held its weekly group meeting today. Ankara MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder started his speech in Kurdish in honor of the World Mother Tongue Day and then left the microphone to Mardin Metropolitan Municipality Co-mayor Ahmet Türk, who was recently released from prison.

Muğla and Aydın provincial branches and academics recently expelled from Ankara University Faculty of Communication with the latest Statutory Decree also attended the group meeting.

Group Deputy Chairperson Ahmet Yıldırım opened the meeting. He spoke in Kurdish to honor February 21 World Mother Tongue Day and underlined the importance of education in the mother tongue. Yıldırım also mentioned the shutting down of KURDİ-DER and the Kurdish Institute along with television networks and newspapers in Kurdish in the State of Emergency process.

KURDISH STUDENTS GREETED

Afterwards, Sırrı Süreyya Önder took the stand and said welcome to the participants in Kurdish for the World Mother Tongue Day.

Önder said: “A clerical high school in Aydın filed charges against students singing in Kurdish. They are shown the way to prison because they sang in their own language.”

Önder continued after greeting the students and said: “Brother Ahmet is with us. Brother Ahmet’s personal history is the history of democracy in this country. His history is the history of the Kurdish people’s demand for peace and freedom. I invite Brother Ahmet to the stand to share with us on this day of the mother tongue.” Önder stepped down to allow Türk to speak afterwards.

TÜRK: THEY CAN’T SILENCE US

Ahmet Türk said the following:

“I hope that all the languages in the world achieve their freedom and we will celebrate this day in good conscience. I can’t address our co-chairs from this stand today. Our co-chairs are in dungeons. Today I send them my greetings and my respect to them. We have of course experienced this many times. In the ‘80s, in ’94. We know that policies of violence never silence those who demand freedom.

We always believed that issues will be solved through discussion on a democratic basis. We preserve this belief against all odds today. The place of mayors elected with the will of the people is among the people, serving the people. We believe that issues can be solved through dialogue on this basis.

Kurds are fighting for a democratic free future in these lands. The Middle East can’t be free until the Kurds are free. But we know very well that there is a mindset that sees Kurds as a potential threat. That is the cause of the pain we are experiencing today, because the Kurds have the knowledge and the background to create a democratic future. That is why the Kurds are targeted today. Peace comes through dialogue on the democratic basis, through finding solutions with a joint intelligence. That is how we can ensure our future and peace for this region.

Whatever the circumstances, there are no other options than dialogue and peace. They have attempted to silence peoples with policies of violence, today there are many academics with us, they have been expelled because they have a conscience. We know that the only option is peace. If we are aiming for a democratic future, let’s shout out loud together for peace, and let’s fight for it.”

ÖNDER: A TOTAL LIE!

Önder continued his comments after Türk and said:

“They put the gowns of academics, who had no crime but to demand justice and freedom, in mud but those gowns will be flags for peace.

I would like to address Mr. İbiş here. Mr. İbiş, they will all step aside and you will be left with the weight of this on your shoulders. Justice may come late, but it will come. Either defend what you have done, or react to them placing this burden on you and we will know you are human.

Some people with research companies close to the opposition, some opposition MPs open their mouths and say that the Kurds are in cahoots with the government. They cite my name too. They say I met with Prime Minister Yıldırım, that is a total lie. There is no meeting, and no attempt at a meeting. This propaganda that we are secretly meeting will not pass the filters of this people. We did make a call, but there is no dialogue or negotiation.

NUSAYBİN

A village in Nusaybin has been under siege for days. Our MPs and representatives from human rights organisations went there, but nobody is allowed through. Everybody should know that the struggle for democracy can’t be separate from the struggle for peace in this country. If you don’t object to no comment being made on what’s happening there, you will become the German priest. That is why everybody should demand accountability. They tell the Kurds to deal with their own fate, not take them on and if possible, not show their face around in the referendum process. This is unacceptable. Our struggle will continue against this tyranny, and this denialist mindset.

Our MPs Ferhat Encü and İdris Baluken were released. The courts voted unanimously that there is no need for them to stay on remand. Now in the Article 267 of the Law of Criminal Procedure is clear on this release and the appeal against remand. Appealing the court’s release decree for our MPs is not listed among the duties and responsibilities of the prosecutor. Nor does any other court have the right to take this into their agenda to assess it. This practice is absolutely unlawful, and these decrees show how the courts operate on a political mechanism. Then they turn and tell us to ‘come to the courts, give your statements’. We refuse to be part of this unlawfulness.

I would like to announce very clearly to the public here: All our MPs in courts first demanded this unlawful process to be halted. These demands are rejected. There is no incitement to violence in these case files. We audited this executive power by your proxy. They send us to courts and ask us why we said such and such thing.

A country can lose everything, but the only thing that can’t be replaced is the lives lost, and when justice disappears. There is a court called the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court decided on the Twitter ban in 8 days. It was a matter of freedom of communication. The will of the people to represent themselves in this country has been held hostage for more than a hundred days. What does the Constitutional Court see as necessary to act upon this matter? Are they waiting for a threat to the lives of our colleagues in prison? I’m calling on the Constitutional Court, there is nothing illegitimate in our demands, just act according to justice. There is nothing illegal here. We demand justice, our most fundamental right. We don’t need mercy from anybody.

THE SIGNS OF SPRING WILL COME ON THE 16TH

The whim to have the Friday prayers in the Umayyad Mosque has ended in having funeral prayers in Kocatepe Mosque. You are losing people, from academics to students, from soldiers to guerillas, in a war that they didn’t start, but the true damage is done to the future of this country. What is lost is the hope for coexistence, and our expectation for a common homeland. Why? Because of your baseless beliefs. Those who claim there is ethnic cleansing in Rojava today, don’t have a practice at all that would correspond to the reality. The acts of one man who nullified an election through a trustee is clear. Does it make sense that the first act in Kurdish cities is to take down signs in Kurdish and cancel services in Kurdish? And then they will turn to the conservative Kurds and ask them for votes. That is the clever idea they came up with. As if the conservative Kurds are without dignity. They found this clever idea, and they don’t realize that they are being unfair to the conservative Kurds.

The third sign of spring will come on April 16. It is in our hands to achieve this. If we work on it, we will celebrate the coming of the spring on April 16.”