HPG

Kurdistan People's Defence Forces

KCK Executive Council Member Mustafa Karasu analysed the closure of the DTP to the 'Roj Aktüel' programme on Roj TV. Condemning the decision fiercely, Karasu said ''they cannot even tolerate a legal party defending the rights of Kurds in the democratic political domain, a long term genocide plan is in practise. Turkey has no intention of solving the Kurdish issue within democratic means.

The banning of the DTP is clear evidence that they cannot tolerate the presence of the Kurdish people in democratic politics. Expressions such as 'they have links with the PKK' are only excuses. This decision means that there is no place in Turkey for a party that defends the rights of Kurds. They have shown this once again wıth theır actıon against the DTP, who has the Kurdish public behind it, that they will not tolerate them.

The mentality in Turkey has not changed. The democracy they want is a democracy without Kurds. If Kurds do not struggle for their rights then their democracy will work, but when it is the Kurds that are in question then not just the Turkish State but also the media and supposed liberal intellectuals are all blaming the DTP and Kurds.''

Karasu added that the Turkish State still wanted to dissolve the Kurds within Turkishness and commenting on the Herri Batasuna example, ''if they accept the autonomy in Spain do you think the PKK will say 'no' to it.''

Karasu gave two reasons for the DTP's ban, ''the first; the Prime Minister was saying I will not speak and accept you as an interlocutor if you do not condemn the PKK as a terrorist organisation. In other words he was trying to say: 'if you do not call the PKK 'terrorists' then you are not legitimate! Now they have banned the DTP because they did not accept their legitimacy. The second is that the old Kurdish policy has become bankrupt. Everyone accepts this. However this does not mean that Turkey has embraced a new Kurdish policy. The new Kurdish policy is one of carrying out a prolonged genocide on the Kurds.''