KCK prisoners: declaration of deadlock - UPDATE
KCK prisoners: declaration of deadlock - UPDATE
Once again the prisoners in the so called KCK (Confederation of Kurdish Communities) trial have expressed their worries for a trial which is so clearly a bluff and unmotivated trial that the only way to keep it going is to continue to postpone it. Two years have passed since the first arrests of many Kurdish politicians and activists and yet to date not a single "evidence" has been produced in court. Because there is no "crime" and so there could be no evidence. The operation was designed to be a "preventive" operation: indeed thousands of politicians and activists have been arrested in the hope that after their detention some kind of evidence of some kind of crime would come up.
Of course it could work like that. And yet scores of politicians, elected representatives, activists are being kept in prison for the sake of it. Or rather with the precise aim to prevent them from doing what they have been elected to do, run the cities, municipalities, councils, civil society organisations. In this sense, yes, the operation succeed in being 'preventive'.
The prisoners, in a long statement write that “This concept of attack on the democratic political struggle of the Kurdish people has been implemented with the approval of Prime Minister Erdogan himself and through police force, militants of the Gulen Sect, and judiciary support. The main purpose of these operations, as the democratic public opinion knows, is to break the will of Kurdish people and to make them submit through their leading institutions and administrators. The attempt to attack on the Kurdish language, culture, identity and demands with all kinds of special warfare methods is the intention to reach a definitive conclusion failed by the September 12 military coup which was trying to destroy the awakening conscience of the Kurdish people".
Similarly, the statement reads, "April 14 coup aimed at making Kurds disorganized and weak. The mentality is two of a kind in terms of perspective and purpose. Therefore, the trial judging is a conjuncture result of a plan with strategic goals. The trial is therefore an unlawful political conspiracy, as we have expressed many times. Through us, the case intends to judge a people’s struggle for freedom and equality, the democratic politics and all achievements obtained on this democratic ground. This reality necessitates a political approach to the case.”
The prisoners of the KCK trial further state that “Despite everything, in order to respond to the accusation which was ordered to keep the truths hidden, to adjust the reversed facts and to decipher the political conspiracy, we prepared our defenses written both in Kurdish and Turkish so that we could take advantage of our right of defense which we individually regard as divine. We also issued a common defense speech which in the same way reflected our common thoughts. However, our demand and right to express ourselves in our mother tongue was denied at the first hearing which first took place 18 months after our imprisonment. Our language was despised and recorded as “unintelligible language”. We once more faced the naked face of the policy of denial and ignore. Our demand for translator was also rejected. We were exposed to unjust accusations and lie allegations and insults during the reading of the indictment which lasted for days. When we were after a very long time allowed to speak, the court didn’t let us to defend ourselves in our mother language. We were forced to abandon our “language and identity”.
The statement continued as follows:
"The AKP has decided on a total warfare against the Kurdish people and it is making massacre plans with the most fascist methods at military, political, legal and psychological fronts. The AKP has carried out uninterrupted operations even during the unilateral ceasefires and led to the deaths of tens of Kurdish and Turkish children of poor laborer families. Kurdish people, young and old alike, were targeted and put in prisons, exposed to systematic tortures which are no longer applied in secret as in past, while Kurdish politicians are sentenced to more than 10 years imprisonment penalties for just speaking and expressing their opinions. Implementing all these applications on one side, the AKP is on the other side trying to use confederate and surrendered Kurds as a tool. This kind of attacks by this mentality are applied in a multiplied and more fascist way in prisons where we face with a mindset that violates its own aged laws. Kurdish Revolutionary prisoners are recently exiled to the furthest western provinces of Kurdistan.
Besides insulting our language, culture, belief and personalities, they are creating new lawlessness and scandals. We have not been allowed to express a single defense word for 2.5 years as the fascist spirit of “Speak Turkish” mindset was updated in a tragicomic way at the court. The court board and the main forces behind the matter are applying to new tactics every day against the approach, attitude and resistance of the defendants. The hearings in the file were unlawfully divided into groups and only six defendants have attended the hearings for the last eight months, while the rest of us (98) aren’t taken to the hearings. 25 of the defendants have been exiled to Bingöl for factitious reasons.
In the same way, the demands put forward by our lawyers since the first day have all been rejected and their objections were not accepted. They weren’t given a chance to perform their job as well as being subjected to threats and duress. They were openly threatened by police in the courtroom many times but the complaints and demands of our lawyers in this regard weren’t considered by the court board.
In the August 12 dated trial, the court prosecutor demanded the referral of our trial files to another province. This situation is an open expression of sinking into a deadlock and a nonresistance intended to be exposed through this kind of threats and duress. It should be known that we will under any circumstances sustain our resistance against the fascist courts that have no power to try us. We announce that we will act with the mark “resignation leads to betrayal, resistance to victory” at any court in any province. We will continue to raise our resistance even more as long as the judicial system and the state’s denialist and destructive conception exist. We would like the public to know that we will resist up to the end in every ground and place against the policies of resignation and subdue imposed on us.”
Of course it could work like that. And yet scores of politicians, elected representatives, activists are being kept in prison for the sake of it. Or rather with the precise aim to prevent them from doing what they have been elected to do, run the cities, municipalities, councils, civil society organisations. In this sense, yes, the operation succeed in being 'preventive'.
The prisoners, in a long statement write that “This concept of attack on the democratic political struggle of the Kurdish people has been implemented with the approval of Prime Minister Erdogan himself and through police force, militants of the Gulen Sect, and judiciary support. The main purpose of these operations, as the democratic public opinion knows, is to break the will of Kurdish people and to make them submit through their leading institutions and administrators. The attempt to attack on the Kurdish language, culture, identity and demands with all kinds of special warfare methods is the intention to reach a definitive conclusion failed by the September 12 military coup which was trying to destroy the awakening conscience of the Kurdish people".
Similarly, the statement reads, "April 14 coup aimed at making Kurds disorganized and weak. The mentality is two of a kind in terms of perspective and purpose. Therefore, the trial judging is a conjuncture result of a plan with strategic goals. The trial is therefore an unlawful political conspiracy, as we have expressed many times. Through us, the case intends to judge a people’s struggle for freedom and equality, the democratic politics and all achievements obtained on this democratic ground. This reality necessitates a political approach to the case.”
The prisoners of the KCK trial further state that “Despite everything, in order to respond to the accusation which was ordered to keep the truths hidden, to adjust the reversed facts and to decipher the political conspiracy, we prepared our defenses written both in Kurdish and Turkish so that we could take advantage of our right of defense which we individually regard as divine. We also issued a common defense speech which in the same way reflected our common thoughts. However, our demand and right to express ourselves in our mother tongue was denied at the first hearing which first took place 18 months after our imprisonment. Our language was despised and recorded as “unintelligible language”. We once more faced the naked face of the policy of denial and ignore. Our demand for translator was also rejected. We were exposed to unjust accusations and lie allegations and insults during the reading of the indictment which lasted for days. When we were after a very long time allowed to speak, the court didn’t let us to defend ourselves in our mother language. We were forced to abandon our “language and identity”.
The statement continued as follows:
"The AKP has decided on a total warfare against the Kurdish people and it is making massacre plans with the most fascist methods at military, political, legal and psychological fronts. The AKP has carried out uninterrupted operations even during the unilateral ceasefires and led to the deaths of tens of Kurdish and Turkish children of poor laborer families. Kurdish people, young and old alike, were targeted and put in prisons, exposed to systematic tortures which are no longer applied in secret as in past, while Kurdish politicians are sentenced to more than 10 years imprisonment penalties for just speaking and expressing their opinions. Implementing all these applications on one side, the AKP is on the other side trying to use confederate and surrendered Kurds as a tool. This kind of attacks by this mentality are applied in a multiplied and more fascist way in prisons where we face with a mindset that violates its own aged laws. Kurdish Revolutionary prisoners are recently exiled to the furthest western provinces of Kurdistan.
Besides insulting our language, culture, belief and personalities, they are creating new lawlessness and scandals. We have not been allowed to express a single defense word for 2.5 years as the fascist spirit of “Speak Turkish” mindset was updated in a tragicomic way at the court. The court board and the main forces behind the matter are applying to new tactics every day against the approach, attitude and resistance of the defendants. The hearings in the file were unlawfully divided into groups and only six defendants have attended the hearings for the last eight months, while the rest of us (98) aren’t taken to the hearings. 25 of the defendants have been exiled to Bingöl for factitious reasons.
In the same way, the demands put forward by our lawyers since the first day have all been rejected and their objections were not accepted. They weren’t given a chance to perform their job as well as being subjected to threats and duress. They were openly threatened by police in the courtroom many times but the complaints and demands of our lawyers in this regard weren’t considered by the court board.
In the August 12 dated trial, the court prosecutor demanded the referral of our trial files to another province. This situation is an open expression of sinking into a deadlock and a nonresistance intended to be exposed through this kind of threats and duress. It should be known that we will under any circumstances sustain our resistance against the fascist courts that have no power to try us. We announce that we will act with the mark “resignation leads to betrayal, resistance to victory” at any court in any province. We will continue to raise our resistance even more as long as the judicial system and the state’s denialist and destructive conception exist. We would like the public to know that we will resist up to the end in every ground and place against the policies of resignation and subdue imposed on us.”
