Kurds again under threat of clampdown in Turkey

Crackdowns against Kurdish people in Turkey continue
across the country, with elected politicians, soldiers and even seasonal
workers falling victim.
On Tuesday, Sirri Sakik, a former lawmaker from the
pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and ex-mayor of eastern Agri
province, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on terrorism
charges.
The case centered on a press statement he gave five
years previously about clashes between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) and the Turkish military.
He was charged with “helping the PKK willingly” and
“holding terror propaganda,” though he was among a group of 250 people,
including several Kurdish politicians and NGO representatives, to call on the
government to restart negotiations with the PKK to end the violence.
“We got tired of these clashes; and we are here, as
NGOs and people of Agri province, for these clashes not to reoccur,” he had
said at the time.
Sakik, a prominent Kurdish politician since the
1990s, was dismissed from his post in 2017 when the government appointed a
trustee to the municipality.
Last week, HDP deputy Remziye Tosun received a
10-year prison sentence on terrorism charges after she was accused of treating
injured members of the PKK during clashes in Diyarbakir province in 2016.
A short truce between Ankara and the PKK ended in
the summer of 2015, opening the way for violent clashes in the southeastern and
eastern provinces of the country where Kurdish people mainly reside.
Elsewhere, Dogan Cetin, a 20-year-old Turkish
soldier of Kurdish origin, was allegedly attacked during his mandatory military
service by two other soldiers, and was insulted by his commander, who called
him a “terrorist and a backstabber” over remarks about the use of the Kurdish
language in Turkey.
“People from the cities of Urfa, Van, and Sirnak are
all my brothers. We are Kurds but we cannot understand each other. If only we
were all able to have Kurdish education,” Cetin reportedly told his fellow
soldiers.
An investigation was launched by the Turkish
military after Cetin contacted the country’s Directorate of Communications.
Tulay Hatimogullari, an HDP lawmaker from the
southern province of Adana, told Arab News: “Several Kurdish politicians and
mayors are now behind bars. People are beaten just because they want to speak
in Kurdish, their mother tongue. The government seems to push the HDP, as the
parliament’s third largest party, outside the political sphere by labeling us
as terrorists and executing a political massacre. These attempts are meant to
break our social influence.”
There have also been several other physical attacks
on Kurds in recent days. On Sept. 4, a group of Turkish people assaulted 16
Kurdish seasonal agricultural workers harvesting hazelnuts in the western
province of Sakarya. The attack sparked public outrage, with two people taken
into custody and then bailed for the attack.
On Sept 13. an armed attack targeting Kurdish
construction workers in Turkey’s eastern province of Van saw a worker lost his
life, while two others were injured in the Aegean province of Afyon.
“Against all these attacks, the HDP will keep
struggling for democracy, peace and justice,” Hatimogullari said.