The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Group Deputy Chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit evaluated the latest developments at a press conference held in the Parliament.

Koçyiğit also commented on the killing of journalists Gulistan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn in an UCAV attack carried out by the occupying Turkish state against a vehicle carrying Kurdish journalists in Seyîdsadiq district of Sulaymaniyah on 23 August.

“I would like to salute the Free Press labourers who do not leave their pens on the ground, who are in the fields, squares, battlefields, war zones for the people's right to information despite the war and difficult conditions all over the world, who broadcast from war trenches and who do not back down no matter what,” said Koçyiğit.

Remarking that Turkey committed a ‘war crime’ with its attacks against journalists, Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit continued her speech as follows: “This is an extrajudicial execution. If you freely go and target civilian vehicles and civilian settlements of another country in the airspace of another country with UCAVs, and massacre Free Press labourers, journalists and the people living there, this is called extrajudicial execution. Even in war, journalists are not touched. But unfortunately, Turkey has committed a war crime in Sulaymaniyah by targeting civilian settlements and civilian vehicles many times and massacring the people and Free Press workers there.”

“The AKP-MHP government is responsible for the massacre. The government, which does not resolve the Kurdish question through democratic methods, turns everywhere into a war zone, establishes military bases in almost every square metre of South Kurdistan, and tries to open the door to a new war through military agreements, is personally responsible for these deaths,” she underlined.

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit stated that incidents of violence have increased due to the policies of the AKP government and said, “The AKP is organising violence and lynch culture. Violence is spreading like an epidemic. It is a misogynist government and attempts against women's lives every day. It fuels and feeds this violence that amounts to a gendercide. If these perpetrators knew that their crimes would not go unpunished, they would not commit these crimes. We are facing a spiral of violence that spills over from the Parliament to the streets, from violence against women, to violence against children, violence against animals, violence against immigrants, violence against the poor, violence against others. This is a lynch culture. This culture is being revived by the government itself. We are passing through days and thresholds where everyone must take a stance against this risk and violence.”

Koçyiğit also commented on the escalating attacks against the values of the Kurdish people, stating: “People who sing and dance to Kurdish music are arrested and attacked. In a place where the judiciary, the police and the government take sides in such incidents, protecting racists, the conditions for talking about social peace and living side by side disappear. Today, the AKP government is dividing society in two with its policies. It is dividing in the real sense. We are millions from Edirne to Hakkari, we are the real owners of this country, we are not guests of this country. Of course, we will speak in every inch of this country. We never, ever accept being a ‘shadow citizen’ that you impose on us.”

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit continued: “Erdoğan said yesterday in Bitlis: ‘Gone are the days when our people were marginalised because of their identity and language. The days of oppression and bans are completely behind us, never to return'. We ask Tayyip Erdoğan in an environment where people who dance to Kurdish songs are arrested, people who sing Kurdish songs are beaten and lynched; how come the bans and oppressions are gone, how come people are not discriminated against because of their origin and language? If he only looks at the statements made by his partner in the last week, he will see the truth and reality. But his task is not to see the truth. His task is to obscure the truth, to create perception and manipulation. If Kenan Evren were alive, he would give a standing ovation to the anti-Kurdish policies of the AKP and MHP. In that sense, we are confronted with a policy that falls very much behind the 12 September mentality and Kenan Evren.”

Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit also drew attention to the experiences of prisoner Abdulkadir Bozkurt, who was threatened with death and attacked by guards in Tekirdağ Closed Prison No 2, and the situation of other prisoners. She referred to the reports of other prisoners through their families and demanded the Ministry of Justice to investigate the allegations of torture and isolation on site.