Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of people in the south east of Turkey have seen their home towns and neighbourhoods destroyed in the face of indiscriminate and barbaric attacks by Turkish armed forces. We publish here a statement by the International Marxist Tendency, calling on our readers to support the struggle of the Kurds.
Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of people in the south east of Turkey have seen their home towns and neighbourhoods destroyed in the face of indiscriminate and barbaric attacks by Turkish armed forces. Thousands of innocent people have been imprisoned and hundreds of men, women and children murdered in a barbaric civil war waged by the Erdoğan regime against the Kurdish people of Turkey.
On Monday, state security forces imposed a curfew on the towns of Cizre and Silopi. This comes as curfews continue in large parts of Diyarbakir (Amed), which has been under curfew and under heavy indiscriminate attacks for two weeks. Tanks have been roaming the streets and along with thousands of troops have indiscriminately been shooting at civilian targets across the besieged areas. So far at least eight people have been killed in this period, but the figures are bound to rise dramatically as the state prepares a massive onslaught against Silopi and Cizre.
In the recent period, these two towns have been in the forefront of the democratic movements in the Kurdish areas, as they have resisted the undemocratic government of the region through the introduction of “autonomous” areas – i.e. highly democratic structures that involve the people in local decision-making.
Over the past period, the Kurdish leftist and democratic movement has become the biggest obstacle in Erdoğan’s path. The setting up of the HDP managed, through its radical programme, to connect with the rising class struggle and dissatisfaction amongst the Turkish youth and working class, and thereby to derail Erdoğan’s plans to change the constitution so as to concentrate power in his own hands. The whipping up of anti-Kurdish sentiments is an attempt at dividing the Turkish and Kurdish workers in order to weaken this rising opposition against his rule.
Erdoğan is intent on crushing the Kurdish movement, which is also the most efficient force that is fighting his jihadi proxies in Syria. He has marked out Cizre and Silopi because they stand out in the process of radicalisation taking place in Turkey and because they are relatively isolated and not part of a larger “autonomous” area. By drowning the resistance in blood here, he aims to demolish the rest of the movement before he cracks down on it completely. In this respect the call of the DBP for “uninterrupted mass resistance” throughout the south-eastern region is very important as a means of breaking the isolation of the two towns. This call must be accompanied with a vigorous campaign by all revolutionary forces in Turkey amongst the Turkish workers and youth in order to unite the working class of the whole country against the reactionary regime.
We also note that this onslaught is taking place just when the EU has reopened membership negotiations with Turkey. It is a damning statement on the “democratic” credentials of Angela Merkel and other top EU politicians that they are willing to silently underwrite Erdoğan’s atrocities for the sake of their own narrow interests and those of European capitalism.
The International Marxist Tendency wholeheartedly supports the mass resistance of the Kurdish people of Turkey against the barbaric civil war waged by the Erdoğan regime. We call on all of our supporters to take up the issue in their organisations, trade unions, schools and workplaces passing resolutions in support of the Kurdish struggle and to organise and participate in protests and demonstrations.
- Down with Erdoğan’s war on the Kurds!
- Down with the government of murderers and thieves!
- Down with racism and nationalism!
- An injury to one is an injury to all – workers of the world unite!
Published on In Defence of Marxism
