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Istanbul – Reuters
Kurds in Turkey expressed anger on Saturday over a judicial attempt to ban the Kurdish HDP, turning their Nowruz celebrations across the country into a show of defiance.
In a move that represented the culmination of a years-long crackdown, a prosecutor last week filed a lawsuit to shut down the party due to alleged “ties” to Kurdish fighters. The HDP, the third-largest party in parliament, denies such ties, describing the move as a “political coup.”
Abbas Mandi (45 years old) said: “While Nowruz, the ‘National Day of the Kurds’ is celebrated in Istanbul; As thousands gathered for a march amid tight security, they know that shutting down the HDP will not be a solution. You can close a party, but you can’t close your mind to people. “
The crowd waved the flags of the HDP and other left-wing parties, and played Kurdish music and danced after listening to speeches by party officials, and the party garnered 11.7 percent, or nearly six million votes, of support. in the 2018 general elections.
“They closed seven or eight similar parties before, and they came back stronger,” said Mandi, who is from Sharnakh city in southeastern Turkey, which is inhabited by an overwhelming Kurdish majority. He described Nowruz as a “feast of peace,” resistance and revival. “
Lighting the torch of Nowruz
Kurds have long been interested in celebrating Nowruz, the New Year according to the Kurdish calendar, and they make up more than 20 percent of Turkey’s population of 84 million people, living mainly in the southeast of the country, and a large number of them also live in Istanbul.
For his part, Radwan Aktash (30 years old) said he believed that no ethnic group in the world had suffered oppression like the Kurds, and accused the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of attacking anyone who opposes it, as long as the government says so. “. Treat all citizens equally.”
Aktash, who works in fisheries, added: “If you are close to them, then you are a good (citizen), but if you are far from them, then you are a terrorist and a traitor. The HDP is our honor and our path, and they cannot close it ”.
Join the party suppression
Turkey has a long history of repressing and shutting down political parties that it considers a threat, especially the Kurds. Where, in the past, a group of Kurdish parties was prohibited.
The Erdogan government, the prosecutor who shelved the case, accuses the HDP of having close relations with the PKK militants, while the party has repeatedly denied the existence of such ties.
The PKK launched a revolt against Ankara in 1984, sparking clashes that killed more than 40,000 people on both sides, and some Kurds say the current situation reminds them of the climax of the conflict in the 1990s.
“We are now witnessing a situation similar to what happened in the 1990s,” said 43-year-old Samsian Aslanhan. It is getting worse. They are deporting our representatives of Parliament. They believe they have the right, but we seek to obtain our rights.
The case, presented by the prosecutor to close the HDP, started a hectic week in Turkey, and Erdogan withdrew, early Saturday, the country from an international agreement aimed at protecting women and removed the governor of the Central Bank.
