Villagers Will Not Vote for Politicians!

The villagers from the Suruc district of Sanliurfa, have decided to turn in empty ballots at the November 3 elections. The villagers from this overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast district are in protest of the politicians who haven't solved their problems.

Inhabitants of villages of Bilge, Olcektepe and Dumlukuyu, and the people who live in the 11 regions affiliated to these villages, say they will not vote to protest the ignorance by the politicians for decades of their request for such services as road, water, health and education.

Politicians not allowed in

The villagers said that they would not let the politicians, who come to ask for votes, into their villages.

"They have not served us like we expected up to this day," says Mehmet Samur, the Dumlukuyu headman. "We handed petitions to the president, some ministries in Ankara and the General Consulate of Rural Services. We asked for services for our village. But we didn't even get replies to some of our petitions."

"We will go to the polls so that we don't get fined," Mehmet Emin Aydeniz, the headman of the Bilge village said, "We wouldn't be going to the polls on November 3 if they didn't fine the absentees. We will go to the polls and turn in an empty ballot so that we don't get fined 5

million Turkish lira (dlrs 3) each."

There are 600 voters in the village of Bilge and its five regions, 350 voters in the village of Olcektepe and its three regions, and 400 voters in the village of Dumlukuyu and its three regions. (NK/BB)