Last week, 12 terrorists were killed in operations in Siirt and Şemdinli. However, the bodies have not been returned to their families, providing fertile ground for the PKK to disseminate its dark propaganda and stage acts of agitation. In the demonstrations, PKK supporters have vandalized nearby stores, attacking them with Molotov cocktails.
Kurdish Revolutionary Democrats Movement (KDDH) Secretary-General Halim İpek points to the escalation in such provocative acts in the region since the day for the referendum was announced as Sept. 12. He says the state’s insistence on keeping the terrorists’ bodies in a hospital morgue for days is being used by the PKK to agitate the residents of the overwhelmingly Kurdish Southeast. He also notes that the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has also been exploiting the recent developments in the country to call for a boycott of the referendum among its voters. “It says something when you keep these bodies in morgues for days and don’t return them to their families. What is the meaning of this? There are rumors that ‘the bodies are being subjected to “torture”,’ pushing people to take to the streets. The main reason behind all this is the attempt to boycott the referendum. Nobody should become an instrument to creating such grounds. This referendum is our last chance, whether we are Kurds or Turks, for democracy. Those who want to undermine the democratic process feed into each other.”
Kurds should vote yes in public vote
İpek also warned that the government should immediately take measures to prevent provocative initiatives. “No matter what the conditions are, the democratic initiative should continue,” he says, noting that his organization has been a proponent of the government’s Kurdish initiative, which seeks to marginalize separatist violence by extending more cultural and linguistic rights to the country’s Kurds. “Everyone should fulfill their responsibility to silence the guns. The referendum will end the status quo and the coup d’état tradition. Kurds should make their best efforts to ensure an overwhelming ‘yes’ vote in the national vote on the package. And the BDP should review its decision to boycott the referendum,” said İpek. The government’s 26-article reform package introduces various constitutional changes including an overhaul of the country’s two high judicial bodies.
Diyarbakır Bar Association President Mehmet Emin Aktar noted the recent provocative incidents in the East and the Southeast. He says those who take to the streets acting on rumors that bodies are not being returned or are being “tortured” cannot be expected to act with common sense. “Someone who’s lost a loved one or a family member could not possibly think of joining a demonstration on the street. Their grief wouldn’t allow them to do such a thing. If the claims that the bodies are being ‘tortured’ are true, this is unacceptable. Respecting the dead is a necessity of being human, no matter whose dead this might be. They keep the bodies in the morgue despite families wanting them back. Sometimes they are even illegally buried in the cemetery for the indigent. The streets turn into demonstration grounds as a result of these developments.”
