Duran Kalkan (PKK) : The laws work differently in Kurdistan

ANF – BEHDINAN 14.03.2014 – Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Central Committee member Duran Kalkan, commenting after the rejection of requests for the release of the accused in the KCK main trial, said that laws functioned in a different way in Kurdistan, adding: “We considered the retraction of release applications by the Kurdish political prisoners to be an honourable stance.”

Kalkan said that laws enacted in Turkey were not implemented in Kurdistan, adding: “The KCK arrests were connected to a different system. People tried to compare the case to the Ergenekon trial but it is different. After the 2009 local elections the AKP held a meeting with the General Staff and launched the political operations of 14 April. The day before, 13 April, the Chief of the General Staff, İlker Başbuğ, explained the programme to be implemented by the AKP in a 2-hour lecture at the Military College. The next day the AKP declared martial law in Kurdistan and began the process of closing down the DTP. MPs were removed, mayors arrested and over 10,000 Kurdish politicians put in jail. In fact it was a coup, the AKP’s Kurdish coup.” 

Kalkan added: “Because after the local elections the basis existed for a political resolution of the Kurdish question. The victories of the DTP created this. The possibility for delay and deceit had vanished. Either real democratisation and a resolution of the Kurdish question was to follow, or they were to commence fascist attacks. They chose the second option and the attacks were at the level of a coup.” 

Kalkan commented on the latest decision to refuse to release inmates, saying: “Kurdistan is not governed from Ankara. The laws are different and the KCK cases are something else. People were misled, they thought it was a legitimate trial. During the process it has become apparent that this was a mistaken view as everything that has happened has been political. The people inside saw the reality and wanted to demonstrate the situation for all to see. It immediately became evident that the laws don’t function in Kurdistan. The authorities said there was a risk of sick inmates going into the mountains, so they didn’t release them. The judges are now reading the minds of the Kurds they have incarcerated.”

Kalkan added that just as during the massacre in Dersim everyone was killed on the pretext that they might oppose the state in the future, today the same logic was used to keep sick prisoners locked up. “It has become clear that Kurdistan is in a separate category. Those remanded in custody were not arrested on a judicial basis so they cannot be released on such grounds. The fact they retracted their requests is an honourable stance. It is necessary to continue the resistance struggle, as begun by those in Amed.”

Kalkan continued, saying: “The Kurdish political prisoners will perpetuate the spirit of resistance of 1980, as symbolised by the Mazlums, Kemals, Hayris, Ferhats and Ali Çiçeks. They will represent the PKK’s spirit of resistance. They have taken a similar stance in the past and there is resistance everywhere. It is growing. It is necessary to maintain the honourable struggle and to carry it on with a democratic revolution, a cultural revolution that brings freedom, not in accordance with the laws of a state that is implementing a rotten cultural genocide. This is a worthy stance to adopt. They are behaving appropriately and I salute them and congratulate them on their resistance.”