Election Board decision: A coup against the Kurds and democracy

 

The decision to strip Hatip Dicle of his democratically given mandate amounts to nothing short than a coup
The decision by the Supreme Election Board (YSK) to strip Hatip Dicle of his legitimate mandate as MP amounts to nothing less than a coup. A golpe prepared and calculated.
A political decision more than a legal one, as it has been said in this past week that the legality side of the matter could have been solved if not easily at least without much hassle. But no, the YSK has decided to fuel tension. To strip Hatip Dicle of a mandate given to him democratically by hundred of thousands of people amounts to a coup because what has been hit is democracy. The will of the people once again is being ignored. Indeed despised. The arrogance of the Turkish State is once more at its highest. It is difficult to foresee what will happen now. For sure the Kurdish people will not sit and watch. And indeed in their thousands they have already started peaceful demonstrations in many cities. The deputies of the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block had already announced that they will not enter parliament if one or more of the 36 deputies elected will be stripped of their mandate.
Clearly the YSK decision is also an indirect answer to the KCK statement and before that to Abdullah Ocalan.
Ocalan in particular had asked the parliament to fulfil its role of promoter of peace, not war. Evaluating this social level and conditions, leader Abdullah Ocalan stated on 15th June through his lawyers that the process of democratic constitutional solution, which has just started, is based on a stronger condition and basis than ever. However, he saw that this requires the end of the process of conflict and called for relevant parties to create the conditions for a ceasefire. In the meantime, he has been called by Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) to play his role for which all the requirements are to be provided in order to make a reliable progress in the process of a democratic constitution. The KCK has assessed Ocalan’s evaluations as “accurate and his demands are applicable”. But the KCK has added that “closely scrutinizing these calls, the movement has decided to do its part. However, as is known by our people and the whole public opinion, our peaceful endeavours and unilateral ceasefires have not been sufficient to create permanent results. We have announced many unilateral ceasefires in the past. We have unilaterally carried out the 13 August 2010 ceasefire until 15 June 2011”. In this context the KCK has proposed that two points need to be put into practice without delay for the formation of a ceasefire process and development of the process of democratic constitutional solution. The two conditions are: starting the new process of legislation, the TBMM should create the necessary context and call upon leader Abdullah Ocalan to play his role in the democratic constitutional solution process for the solution of the Kurdish question that is the most fundamental and strategic problem of Turkey. And : The state of the Turkish Republic and the Prime Minister and a similarly authorized state official should declare and start the dialogue and peaceful methods to solve the Kurdish question instead of resorting to annihilation.
Clearly the YSK decision goes in the direction of once again resort to annihilation of the Kurdish people. And towards annihilation points also the news reported by Hürriyet, curiously on Tuesday (the day of the YSK decision). Hürriyet wrote that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an is thinking of assigning a deputy prime minister to only oversee the so called Kurdish Initiative. A part from the fact that the Initiative is defunct, and it has been dead for a long time now, it appears that Erdo?an (assuming the news is true) intends to deal with the Kurdish issue himself through is deputy prime minister. In other words, what Erdo?an has once more in mind is a recipe to disaster. The Kurdish question could only be solved through dialogue, as Ocalan and the newly Block’s deputies have repeatedly pointed out. The process to achieve a solution can only be inclusive. It is just non realistic (politically non realistic) to think to address and solve the Kurdish question without the Kurds and their democratically chosen representatives at the negotiation table.

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