Saliha Aydeniz, Co-Chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), stated that the Kurdish people reclaim their status, language, culture, and leader, and that the Kurds no longer want to live as they did in the past.

Speaking to ANF, Aydeniz remarked that their last congress was held at a time when the Kurds were not giving up their struggle and could transform their successes into a legal status, and continued:

“Our people have continuously expressed that the DBP should evolve into a more organized and socially focused party as per its founding role and objective. At the last conference, we also shared a little bit of this mission. We held the congress with the decision to reorganize and spread DBP's founding role and mission in all areas. The work for the congress lasted two months, and we gathered together with all of our structures in Turkey and Kurdistan, as well as our patriotic Kurdish people. In Ankara, we held our 6th ordinary congress under the motto: "Towards a free life in an organized society."

DEMANDS EXPRESSED CLEARLY

Aydeniz emphasized the hostile attitude of the totalitarian state regime and the maintenance of the system over it, despite the Kurdish people's status, language, and freedom problems, and said: “With their slogans and stance, the Kurdish people made it clear that they will never give up their freedom, leader, language, culture, or land. Therefore, the congress demonstrated a clear awareness of the goals that we, as DBP, had set before us. The Kurdish people made a significant contribution to this congress. All of our friends who believed that democracy would not come to Turkey unless the Kurdish issue was resolved were with us today. It was a congress in which the Kurdish people's demands were clearly expressed.”

THE KURDISTAN LEG OF STRATEGY

Reminding that DBP is also a component of HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party), Aydeniz continued as follows: “Today, HDP is a party that carries out politics in the political scene as the party of all peoples of Turkey, women, youth, Alevis and all marginalized groups in Turkey. It is focusing on an alternative way out to build a democratic foundation around the Democracy Alliance. As a Kurdistani party that is part of the HDP, we are a party that implements the ‘Third Way’ strategy and tries to construct the Kurdistan leg of this strategy. We also stated during our congress that the DBP will fulfill all of its responsibilities.”

A RESPONSE TO THE ATTACKS

Emphasizing that the DBP will strive to construct the line of a united struggle with Turkey’s laborers and workers, as it did previously, Saliha Aydeniz said: “They targeted the DBP's co-chairs, politicians, and administrative staff through arrests and political operations for consistently trying to make democratic politics. They challenged our co-presidency system, which we have built in our municipalities. DBP's congress highlighted how it has survived these policies and will continue to work in the face of all pressures, attitudes, colonial and war policies.”

THE STRUGGLE FOR ABDULLAH ÖCALAN'S FREEDOM

Noting that the Kurdish people will never give up on democratic politics, Aydeniz said, "One of the DBP's duties and missions in the next era will be to fight for Abdullah Öcalan's physical freedom. It should be highlighted that we have a responsibility to emphasize that not only the Kurdish people, but all segments that want Turkey to be democratized should be involved in the struggle at this point.”

THE ‘COLLAPSE PLAN’ CONTINUES

Stating that the Turkish state's current government maintains former state policies, Aydeniz said, “Just as they excluded the Kurds from the stage of history with the Treaty of Lausanne a century ago, they are now trying to collapse the hard-won gains made by the Kurds through the concept of total annihilation while the Middle East is being reshaped. They began implementing this with the Collapse Plan in 2014. They have launched war against the four parts of Kurdistan since then. This war resulted in occupation and plunder, as well as genocidal policies against the Kurdish people, especially women.

While the impunity policy pursued in the case of anti-democratic tendencies against the Kurds has not yielded any results, special war policies, prostitution and drugs are employed against Kurdish youth and women in an attempt to eliminate the Kurdish people as a whole. The Kurdish people never bowed to them or backed away.”

WE ARE ON THE EDGE OF VICTORY

Expressing that the Kurdish people reclaim their status, language, culture and leader, DBP Co-chair Saliha Aydeniz added: “We also have a responsibility in the coming period to develop policies that deepen and reveal this. We will advance with this awareness. We are on the edge of establishing a mechanism through which the Kurdish people's successes will be transformed into a legal status. The Kurds no longer want to live as they once did. We will clearly express the Kurdish people's demands and continue to work in this direction.”