Kurds Accuse Erdogan Of State Terror

NEW DELHI: The Kurdistan National Conference has issued a strong statement against the Turkish government and President R.T. Erdogan on institutionalising state terror . It has claimed that the protest march in which 128 persons were killed and over 500 injured was attacked by ‘state supported bombers.’

In a statement sent to The Citizen the Kurds body has said,

“On the 10th of October, 2015, state supported bombers attacked the tens of thousands of people attending a march for peace, killing 128 and injuring over 500, of which 34 are severely injured. Today, Turkey is a country in which pacifists, democracy activists, labourers and anti-war activists are murdered.

The march was organised by non-governmental organisations and trade unions including KESK (Confederation of Public Workers’ Union), DISK (Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey), TMMOB (Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects) and TTB (Turkish Medical Association), who had made a call for a ‘peace and democracy meeting’ in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. Paramilitary forces that could not tolerate such a meeting detonated bombs among those that were gathered. Peace was massacred. Civilians were subjected to terror.

Once again, the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutog?luhas said that ISIS is behind the attacks, just as he did after the explosions at an HDP election rally in Diyarbakir on 5th June, and after the bombing in Suruc on 20th July in which 33 people died. ISIS, however, has not publicly claimed responsibility for any of these attacks and it seems clear instead that the AKP government, while trying to deflect blame elsewhere, is itself directly responsible for the

For four years, the AKP government has been ISIS’ most supportive ally, providing it logistical and material assistance that supported the growth of the group and, in so doing, creating ever more fertile ground for violence, division and intolerance throughout the country. In a statement, ISIS never claimed responsibility for the Ankara attack but it did celebrate those who carried it out.

For months, the AKP government and the President R. T. Erdogan have been actively raising tensions in Turkey for political gain. They have been systematically targeting the HDP, unions, journalists and all other circles who are working for peace. Erdogan himself is forming the platform for these attacks by stimulating a mentality of terror among the people. Turkey has never before witnessed a President who has praised terror to this extent. Inflammatory statements from leading AKP figures further provoked the largest terror attack in Turkish history: the Turkish Interior Minister openly said, “We will quash the heads of anyone who resists” , while only a few days before the Ankara attack Erdogan’s biggest supporter, the mafia leader Sedat Peker, said, “They will drown in their own blood, I am Erdogan’s fellow townsman”. These are the forces behind the attack.

On the morning of the attack in Ankara, the PKK responded to calls for an end to hostilities by declaring a unilateral cease to all guerrilla actions. However, the days leading up to this declaration, the Deputy Prime Minister, Yalcin Akdogan, has been doing his best to negate such a declaration. In the end, Akdogan just said, “We’ve had enough of ceasefires”. Finally, with this attack in Ankara, the AKP and its gangs have shown that they are not in favour of peace. This is terror, state terror.

The EU and USA must reconsider their close relationships with Turkey, a country that a deems it proper for its people to be massacred. They must stop supporting a Turkish President who can look in the eyes of the world and lie, threaten everyone and provoke war and terror.

They must openly tell the AKP that it is not acceptable for a government to terrorise its own people purely to maintain its own grip on power.”