October 26, 2016
The capture of Kurdish mayors is an attack on Kurdish democratic self-rule.
It has been a long time that the AKP government (R.T. Erdogan), epitomising the Turkish state and the classic politics of the Turkish Republic, has launched a multi-faceted attack on Kurdistan. Bombardment of Kurdish cities and villages, mass arrest of Kurdish politicians and massacre of civilians have reached an unpresented level.
Despite military attacks, the Turkish government has extended its operation against the legal institutions that have been staffed by democratically elected Kurdish representatives. This is obviously an indication of the violation of the Kurdistanian peoples’ will and wishes. The Turkish authorities have occupied Kurdistan’s municipalities, arrested some Kurdish mayors, and appointed their own officials in their places.
The Turkish state yesterday on 25.10.2016 launched an attack on the co-mayors of Amed metropolitan (Diyarbakir). Police units mandated by the AKP government arrested both of Gultan KISANAK and Firat ANLI. What all this show is the fact that the Turkish Republic’s treatment of the Kurds has gone beyond threat, setting as its target the eradication of the Kurdish liberationist movement.
Amed (Diyarbakir) is the capital of Kurdistan and its co-mayors stand as symbols of the Kurdish democratic self-rule and the willpower of the Kurdistanian peoples.
It is well evident that the Turkish state now plans to extend its operations to Kurdish municipalities, putting to arrest as many Kurdish mayors as possible. The intension behind this is to impose capitulation on the Kurdish people. But the Kurdish people and their friends will not accept this; how should they stay silent in the face of their elected representatives being illegally put to prison? Despite all this, the Turkish state has increasingly expanded its operations to both West (Syria-Kurdistan) and South Kurdistan (Iraq-Kurdistan).
We, as the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), strongly condemn these feckless policies of the Turkish state and the hostile conducts of the AKP government. All Kurdish co-mayors and other political prisoners must be released immediately.
We call upon all democratic organisations, political parties, the forces of peace, international institutions and parliaments (the EU, the EC, and the UN): do not stay silent in the face of these unlawful attacks. Do not accept the immensely unlawful measures currently being implemented in Turkey.
KNK Executive Council
