The Co-Chairperson of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), Tuncer Bakırhan, addressed various topics including the rising racism in Turkey and the world, the local elections on March 31, irregular voter registrations, and other current issues during his party's parliamentary group meeting. Highlights from Bakırhan's speech include:
"This racist and nationalist trend is dragging the world, the Middle East, and Turkey towards an abyss. Those racists and nationalists who want to ride this wave sow seeds of hostility in our country every day. Politics merchants who are sworn to make Turks enemies with Kurds, Arabs enemies with Persians, Sunnis enemies with Alevis have emerged in Turkey during this period again."
"In the first century of the Republic, the nationalist and racist social contract led us all to losses. We spent the first century with wars, conflicts, assimilation policies, denial, and rejection. Nationalist circles are once again attempting to attack, seemingly united, to silence different identities and beliefs.
Now we say to them, especially as Kurds, that we will not surrender to this mindset that has ignored us for a century. Let's be clear, we are not Turks, but we have no issues with the Turkish people or the peoples of Turkey. As Kurds, we want to have equal rights with the Persians, Turks, and Arabs in this region. We are fighting for this. We do not deny any people, and we do not ignore the rights of any people. We demand our rightful rights.
"Kurds also have the right to their mother tongue"
President Erdoğan states that 'the greatest weapon against assimilation is teaching our children their mother tongue' and then adds 'except for the Kurds.' He wants us to remain silent about this. Would Erdoğan say these words for Kurds as well? Kurds also have the right to their mother tongue. Ignoring the rights of Kurds nullifies these words.
We are being ignored in terms of freedoms and democracy. The economic situation is not much different from the approaches I mentioned earlier. Look, I will show the ranking of provinces in the socio-economic development index prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Technology. In this map, Kurds still face poverty, hunger, and unemployment.
"Attempt to starve the Kurds"
"For those who claim, "We are brothers, we treat Kurds equally," I want to directly show this picture. The areas shaded in gray on this map are Kurdish provinces. This table is the best snapshot of what we have been going through for a century. There is not only hostility towards our language, our way of life, and our freedom but also an attempt to economically starve us. Our objection is to this picture.
"They want us not to speak out against femicides for another century. Let workers be murdered, and let's pass it off as fate. Let no one speak a couple of words in Syriac. Let Kurdish be called an unknown language. Let contracts continue to be awarded to cronies.
"The solution to the Kurdish problem of Turkey is in Turkey"
"The most fundamental problem in Turkey is the Kurdish issue, and the solution is not external but within Turkey. We will continue searching for what is lost in the lost lands. If there is a fragment of state mind inclined to rational thinking, it must see this: the hope for a democratic solution grows every time the doors of İmralı are opened. Turkey, which has persistently pursued a solution for years, should listen to Öcalan, sit down, and talk to him.
"In every province and district in the Kurdish geography, wherever there is a gendarmerie building, wherever there is a police station, they filled them with fake voters. Because they have only one compass: deception.
"Everyone should listen to this clear, blatant, officially recorded fraud and theft: We won the 2019 elections in Iğdır center with 1,511 votes. They have transferred at least 4,361 illegal voters to Iğdır center. In Siirt center, where I was elected as a deputy, we won the 2019 elections with a difference of 1,161 votes, and they have transferred at least 6,819 voters to the center.
"We won the election in Kurtalan district of Siirt with a 700-vote difference; they have transferred only 976 voters to one ballot box. We became the first party in Uludere district of Şırnak with 2,200 votes, but this time, they couldn't find illegal voters domestically; instead, they transferred 3,055 people who were not from Uludere, did not vote domestically, and were registered abroad. In the 2019 elections, they took Ağrı Municipality with fraud and manipulation. Currently, we are the first party within the municipal boundaries with a lead of 7,252 votes. Now, to appoint a trustee to override the will of the people, they have brought thousands of illegal voters to Ağrı."
"Key to success lies in the urban consensus politics"
"They think we will just let it go. Rest assured, we will file criminal complaints against the district election board chairpersons who reject our applications. Our colleagues are getting prepared, and we will also file criminal complaints against these 51 thousand illegal and phantom voters who will cause us to lose the election in many centers. There's no free pass for playing AKP politics and coming to vote. We will file criminal complaints against the district population directors.
"This time, they won't get away with it. This time, everyone will be held accountable for their tricks and deceit. Our call to all provincial and district organizations and deputies is, our duty as ghost voter hunters is to protect every vote. It is to give a strong response to those who deny the people the right to breathe, those who steal in the ballot boxes. Rest assured, by fighting together, we can prevent them from stealing as we win two for every one they steal. We will achieve victory on March 31."
Bakırhan later emphasized that the key to DEM Party's victory in the local elections on March 31 lies in the urban consensus politics they have defined, urging all voters to go to the polls. "We are fighting to achieve local democracy, moving from urban consensus to Turkey-wide consensus," he said. (RT/PE)
