KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council Member Zübeyir Aydar spoke to ANF about the AKP policy towards Kurds and why it is so important for the HDP to overcome the threshold on the 24 June elections.

How do you evaluate the 16 years government of the AKP in relation to Kurds?

The AKP is the continuation of the classical state system. It’s the continuation of this policy: ‘Deny Kurds, silence them, suppress their voice if they speak up’. It is always the same policy, changing its method from time to time. Sometimes there are negotiations, ceasefires, dialogue, but the mentality is the same: eliminate the Kurdish Freedom Movement. Because there is no Kurdish question for the AKP and the state.

Coming to the years when the AKP has been in power, once Erdogan told a Kurdish worker in Russia, 'If you do not think [about it], there is no Kurdish question’. That is the opinion they have. Of course, when the issue showed itself in different ways, the AKP played the internal balances to consolidate its power and opted for a policy of dialogue, ceasefire to see whether Kurds ‘could be silenced’ that way. Finally, when we got to 2015 the AKP realized that it could not get results from that policy, so it unleashed a total war. The main face of the AKP came out even further with what they did in 2015 and 2018.

The destruction of cities in North Kurdistan, the attack on Afrin as an attack on Rojava, and finally the attack on South Kurdistan. Has AKP launched a total war against Kurds?

There is no need to go too far to understand the policies of the AKP and the Turkish Republic. There is no need to go back to the 1925s, to the Eastern Renaissance Plan or Dersim and Zilan massacres. For the last three years, the AKP and the Turkish government have implemented today’s version of the policy implemented in 1925 and with the Eastern Renaissance Plan.

The issue is not limited to North Kurdistan. They razed Kurdish cities and towns to the ground on the grounds that some youth dug trenches in neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods are still banned in Amed. Turkey is also attacking Rojava, revealing the fact that its animosity towards the Kurds is not limited to North Kurdistan alone. Turkey’s attacks on Rojava, on KDP due to the independence referendum in South Kurdistan (Bashur), its role in the fall of Kirkuk with a cooperation with Iran and Iraq shows that its problem is not with the PKK but all the Kurds.

If you look at the AKP election declaration, it promises what it has done in the last 3 years. For us, the AKP, the MHP and the Ergenekon alliance are the policies of death, tear, pain and destruction. AKP, Erdogan, they are responsible for the massacres of Cizre and Sur. We need to resist this. Every Kurd should understand this in this way.

Some argue that Erdogan and the AKP will start a new process of solution of the Kurdish issue if they come to power again. Could this be the case?

These rumors are spread to get people confused. These are completely manipulative discourses. The AKP has no such policy, nor an intention for such a policy. They are walking arm in arm with the MHP and Ergenekon: attacking Afrin, occupying South Kurdistan.

They burned our cities in the North, they gave Kirkuk to Iraq as a present, so, don’t wait any solution of the Kurdish question from Erdogan. This is not happening.

All parties gave different meaning to the 24 June elections. Why are these elections important?

24 June elections are important both for the ruling party and the opposition because they open a new era in Turkey. If the AKP-MHP alliance wins the elections the situation in Turkey will be more severe and challenging than the current situation. This election provides the chance to get rid of the AKP. Looking at the current picture, the AKP and its partners can neither win the election nor gain the majority of parliamentary votes.

In this sense, the opposition has the chance to get rid of that power. 24 June will be a very important day to get rid of this mentality that turns the country into a prison. For this reason, everyone should work with a sense of responsibility. This election is also very important for Kurds. Kurds can say stop to the AKP massacre policy, attack on Afrin and occupation of South Kurdistan.

Thousands of executives, including former co-presidents and deputies of HDP, are in prison. How would this affect the election?

With these policies, AKP is planning to liquidate HDP by forcing it under the threshold. This is the reason for so much repression and arrests. Under normal circumstances, the HDP could get between 15 and 20 percent of the votes. But this is not a normal election. The threshold is not only HDP’s problem. Opposition in general has a problem.

Why are votes in Europe so important?

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to emigrate, to flee persecution. European votes will be important to help the HDP to overcome the threshold.

At the last elections we saw that the HDP came second among voters abroad. We need to increase this percentage in this election. In terms of ending the AKP and Erdogan's rule, the European votes are the determining factor. Everyone should go to the polls with this consciousness and use their vote.