‘Kurds’ votes are not for sale,’ says HDP Co-Chair Buldan
* Photos: HDP
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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Pervin Buldan spoke in Turkey's western province of Bursa yesterday (August 24) as part of the third stage of the party's Democratic Struggle Program.
"Kurds' votes are not for sale," Buldan emphasized in her speech and said, "The votes of Kurds are the votes of people who have their bellies full for your all types of lies and your oppressive mentality based on denial."
Former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who has recently founded the Future Party after resigning from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), made a statement in Turkey's eastern province of Van on August 22, saying, "If Kurds are uneasy, none of us can be at peace."
Other highlights from Buldan's speech were as follows:
'No one can accept such an attitude'
"If need be, you deny it; if need be, you make politics unbearable for them; if need be, you imprison politicians; if need be, you appoint trustees and do not raise your voice against it; you keep the representatives of a people hostages in prisons and do not say a single word about all these...
"While you do not say a single word while Selahattin Demirtaş, Figen Yüksekdağ, İdris Baluken, Sebahat Tuncel, Gültan Kışanak and dozens of my other friends whom I cannot name all are in prison, while you say nothing to the ones who rule the country with trustees and have no words to say to those who have turned the country into a country of isolation, you then come up and talk about Kurdish question.
"Then, you will seek ways to initiate politics in Kurdish provinces while you do not object to any of these. Neither Kurds, nor the people of Turkey would accept such an attitude.
'Kurdish question affects everyone'
"Kurdish question is not only the issue of Hakkari or Diyarbakır. Kurdish question is also the problem of Bursa and the people of Bursa. It is also the issue of the people of Balıkesir, İzmir, the Aegean and Black Sea.
"Because the crises that we have been going through, both economic and social, are not crises that solely affect the HDP and Kurds. Just as they affect the peoples living in western Turkey, in its Aegean and Black Sea, just as it affects the Circassians, Alevis, Arabs and Turks living there, they also affect the Kurds in Kurdistan and the people living there.
'No one faces the future with confidence'
"If the society of Turkey says we are brothers and sisters in this country and live together, they should definitely have a word against what Kurds are going through, they should say something against the pressures they have to live with and the atrocity they face amid this policy of denial.
"This country is the country of us all, we live here all together. If we live together as Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Alevis, women and youth, then we have to stand up against these problems and issues altogether.
"They have turned the country into a country of isolation. Isolation is not imposed solely on [PKK leader] Mr. Öcalan in İmralı Prison. It is imposed on the society and peoples of Turkey in the person of İmralı.
"The people of Turkey live in isolation in every sense of the term. In a country where there is no justice, law, democracy and even social media is not free, people don't feel free and no one faces their future with confidence."
'They seek their power in the depths of ground'
Concluding her remarks, Buldan also touched upon President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's "good news" that natural gas reserves were discovered in the Black Sea.
"They reopened Hagia Sophia to worship; but everyone knows that there were different calculations behind it. They had a survey conducted following Hagia Sophia and saw an increase of one percent. This would not suffice them to come into power again.
"Now, they give the good news that they discovered gas in Black Sea. They now try to seek their power in the depths of ground because they have lost face to look people in the face. They have no credibility left.
"So, they will try to open a new area for unearned income by alleging that they have discovered gas reserves and make new calculations based on this until the year 2023. They say that they will bring the gas reserves into life in 2023. But they know that they cannot stay in power until 2023. Will this gas remain until 2023? No. What will they do?
"They will hold new tenders, give them to companies and make the society of Turkey to meet the cost of this gas reserve. The thing is that they will transfer its revenue to their own companies and pro-government companies." (AS/SD)