The “internal security reform” brought to parliament under the name of “freedom-security harmony” by the AKP regime raises concerns about the institutionalisation of the police-state, while the new wave of detentions and arrests of recent weeks has recalled the repression campaign that started in 2009.

The “internal security reform” that was put on the agenda of the country by the AKP regime following the protests in solidarity with Kobane, has been harshly criticized by human rights activists. The so-called reform raises concerns about the possible threats that it creates for freedoms and the opposition forces.

The government, on the other hand, claims that this “security” reform is to guarantee “basic rights and freedoms”.

Meanwhile, the increasing detentions and arrests of the last weeks have been another source of concern. According to figures provided by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Efkan Ala, 1024 people were detained between 7 and 10 October alone, while 58 were formally arrested. Reports continued to come in the following days about detentions and arrests, while emergency law has de facto been imposed in many cities. These developments recall the KCK operations that started in 2009.

On 30 March 2009, the then Kurdish party, DTP, had gained 100 municipalities in the local elections. Following the victory of the DTP, Turkey entered a new period. Two weeks after the elections the guerrilla movement declared a ceasefire once again. Immediately afterwards, even before 24 hours had passed, the most extensive wave of detentions in the history of the Turkish Republic was launched against the Kurdish movement.

In the first wave of this repression campaign, which was claimed to be against the KCK, 72 people, including the vice chair of the DTP, were detained. 52 of them were arrested. On December 2009, the DTP was closed down.

According to figures obtained from reports of human rights organisations and the Kurdish media, 603 of the 1 thousand 168 detained people were arrested in the KCK operations carried out in 2009 and 2010.

In the same period, the “Oslo meetings” between the Turkish state and the Kurdish people’s leader, Abdullah Öcalan, were also taking place for the resolution of the Kurdish problem. While the Oslo meetings were continuing, operations were also ceaselessly carried out.

The meetings between the Turkish state and Abdullah Öcalan and the KCK lasted until the general elections in June 2011. Following the elections, the delegation of the state abandoned the meetings. The AKP, as the winner of the elections, broke off the Oslo meetings. Then came the full isolation of Öcalan. The lawyers of Öcalan were no longer allowed to visit him at Imralı.

The witch hunt of the Ankara government against the Kurds and the failure of the Oslo meetings raised tensions. Thousands of people were put in prison after having been taken into custody in the raids carried out simultaneously in many places early in the morning.

The new target was the Peace and Democracy Party, BDP, which was founded after the DTP had been closed down. On 4 October, 23 November and 8 December 2011, at least 366 people, including the executives of the BDP and many academics, were detained in operations against the BDP.

Then, the same year, on 20 December, Kurdish journalists were targeted. The most massive detention operation against the press in the history of the Turkish Republic took place. 46 journalists were detained in one day, many of whom were later formally arrested.

The list of the detained and the arrested in the repression campaign that started in 2009 was getting longer and longer. The mayors, deputies, journalists, trade unionists, academics, human rights activists, students and even children were sent to prison. Having eggs or books at home, wearing puşi (traditional Kurdish scarf), having dirty hands, having sweated or chanting a slogan were all accepted as sufficient evidence to be detained.

According to the reports of human rights organisations, in the three years between 2009 and 2011, 27,503 people were detained on political grounds, and 6,444 of those were arrested. 2011, in which more than 12,600 people were detained, was defined by human rights organisations as the year of the institutionalisation of the police state.

The ceasefire that the guerrilla movement had declared in April 2009 continued in all those years until the middle of 2011. The general elections in which Erdoğan again gained victory had taken place under the ceasefire. After the elections the ceasefire ended as the AKP regime that was becoming ever more authoritarian, continued the attacks. The first news of intense clashes came on 14 July. In a military operation in the rural area of Silvan against guerrilla forces maintaining ceasefire positions, 13 guerrillas were killed. While the witch hunt had continued against the Kurds and all oppositional segments of society in the urban regions, operations to destroy the guerrilla movement, called the “Tamil scenario”, was put into action. The Turkish state had made all its plans in order for the guerrillas not being able to come through the winter of 2011-2012.

On the night of 28 December, Turkish aircraft massacred 34 children when they targeted the village of Roboski in the Uludere district of Şırnak. The attacks continued throughout the winter against civilians, politicians and the guerrilla forces. In the spring of 2012, the guerrilla movement launched the most extensive moves of the last 30 years against this campaign of repression and the operations aiming for liquidation.

Within several months, the control of areas of some hundreds of square kilometres in the mountainous regions was taken by the guerrillas. The guerrillas changed their tactic of “hit-and- run” into “hit-and-stay”. The legend of the “undefeatable Turkish army” was left in tatters.

This period of the repression campaign and the strong response of the guerrillas against it continued until the historic call by Öcalan in March 2013.