Speaking to ANF about the ‘wall of shame’, mayor of Nusaybin Ayşe Gökkan remarked that the wall is being built at a time when the Kurdish people expect the government to remove wire fences and demine the border region.

Calling attention to the refusal of such walls across the world, Gökkan reminded of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ‘wall of shame’ comment for the wall Israel built between Gaza and West Bank.

Pointing out that the Kurdish people cannot be separated from each other by means of borders, mined lands and walls, Gökkan said that; “Kurds have cleared the border region of mines with their own bodies. Not accepting the borders put between each other, people have been crossing these borders for nearly half century today. This is an inhuman situation that the Kurdish people never accept”.

Gökkan underlined that the wall being built between Nusaybin and Qamişlo was directly related with the Turkish state’s Rojava policy. The mayor said the Turkish state considered Rojava to be a threat against itself and tried to break the revolution people are achieving there. “The wall of shame aims to isolate the people of Rojava and to prevent Kurds from coming together with each other”, she said.

The mayor stressed that “the Turkish state and AKP government’s Rojava policy bears hostility against Kurds with whom they are on the other hand having a democratic resolution process for making peace inside Turkey”. She said this made the Kurdish people lose their confidence in the resolution process and the AKP government’s sincerity about answering Kurds’ demands for their democratic rights.

Noting that Turkey has faced no attacks from the Rojava side so far, the mayor said “It is on the contrary Turkey that is involved in attacks and threats against Rojava by organizing gang groups and sending them there. By building this war, Turkey aims not to prevent any attacks and threats but to prevent Kurds from attaining their democratic rights”.

Gökkan noted that the Nusaybin municipality has applied all authorities and voiced their objection against the building of the wall, and that none of the officials have provided them with information about the wall nor about those managing and leading its construction.

The mayor added that people in Nusaybin were also against the construction of the ‘wall of shame’.

She underlined that the Kurdish people will however not accept the ‘wall of shame’ nor allow its construction. Gökkan said mass protest demonstrations will be organized in the district to manifest the public objection against the wall, adding that she herself was ready to sacrifice her body to prevent the building.

Gökkan added that the Turkish state should soon provide the necessary information about the wall currently being built on Turkey’s border and avoid acting unlawfully.

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