This year’s Newroz celebrations coincide with the political operations perpetrated under the name of KCK continuing and escalating in intensity since 2009. The visit by the committees from Europe for the purpose of Newroz celebrations this year are aimed at acting in solidarity with around 6000 imprisonned opponents most of whom are Kurdish.
So far (as of 17.01.2012) the arrestees include 6 MPs, 16 Mayors, 97 Journalists, 43 Lawyers and Party officials, Academics, Hundreds of Members of Local Authorities, Students, Defenders of Women’s Rights, representatives of Ecological Movements and various NGOs.
This is on top of the existing 2 thousand 672 charged and imprisonned children (under the age of 18) and 500 students.
While 35 thousand 117 people remain under arrest worldwide on the grounds of ‘terror’, 12 thousand 897 of these are in Turkey. This is to say that Turkey that tops the records of human rights violations, most of which are Kurdish question-related, occupies the top category on this issue as well.
All this is more than enough to be able to understand how the AKP Government in Turkey is trying to supress and imprison all the democratic sections of society meaning all the opponent powers, mainly the Kurds, under the guise of ‘War on Terror’.
In short, this country, which experienced long years of military custody and coup, is now continuing with this tradition by way of political custody and civilian coup. Contrary to different discourses, Turkey is becoming increasingly fascistic with AKP.
The current situation in Turkey is expressed perfectly well in the words of Martin Niemoller in relation to the Nazi period in Germany:
“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade-unionists, and I did’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade-unionist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me’’
Why ‘Ez jî li virim’? (I am here too?)
Political Kurdish arrestees are locked away since the inception of the trial process as wanted to defend themselves in their mother-tongue. As the court rejected this legitimate demand of Kurds, the arrestees respond to inspections with ‘EZ LI VIRIM’ in their language, which means ‘I am here’. ‘EZ LI VIRIM’ has then been transformed into ‘EZ JI LI VIRIM – I am here too’, which means ‘I committed the same crime’ as the slogan for the campaign of naming and giving oneself up. Therefore, we use the slogan of ‘EZ JI LIVIRIM’ for the Newroz Committees this year in order not to say ‘and there was no one left to speak out for me’ like Niemoller, and to show that the people who are subjected to the terror of AKP government are not alone.
So, we would like you to participate in the Newroz Committees too this year;
• To escalate and internationalize the solidarity with those arrested under the KCK Operations
• To observe and document the preventive assaults of the state, to prevent the probable assaults with your existence, and to be there for the Kurdish people in Newroz, which is the Resistance and Liberation Festival of Kurds
• To demand a peaceful and political solution to the Kurdish question through dialogue and to support the project of DEMOCRATIC AUTONOMY proposed by the Kurds as a solution
We invite you to side with the rightful, not with the powerful, by participating in the Human Rights Committees of Newroz 2012…
Note: All Committees are obliged to make an official visit appliaction to the Turkish Ministry of Justice to visit the arrestees
Information:
The Newroz delegations will be organized in cooperation with the Party for Peace and Democracy (BDP).
Kontakt:
Mail:
Tel:
Fax:
Supporters:
KNK – Kurdistan National Congress
KON KURD – Confederation of Kurdish Associations in Europe
FEK BEL – Federation of Kurdish Associations in Belgium
