between independence and repression, the Kurdish vote in the political destiny of Erdogan

A 14-year-old Kurdish boy beaten and forced to sing the Turkish anthem. At least 25 members of the HDP detained in Suruc for (alleged) affiliation to “terrorist groups” (read, the PKK). Repression increases in the country before the elections and to quell discontent over aid and relief after the earthquake. Fountain in Diyarbakir: the earthquake “has fueled resentment” towards the AKP.

Milan () – A young Kurdish man, barely 14 years old, forced to be beaten and tortured to declare himself a Turk and sing the national anthem. The episode, denounced by the website bianet, specializing in human rights violations, occurred on March 21 in Diyarbakır province. As a consequence of the violence, the child is in danger of losing his sight. Identified with the initials YD, he was detained without reason by the police, beaten and abandoned in a deserted area. His father denounced that he had received “pressure” from the agents while he was in the hospital. This also happens in the Turkey of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, where the abuses and persecution of minorities are not an isolated case and are part of a policy of repression and marginalization, as happened with aid after the earthquake on February 6. Along with the Syrian refugees, the Kurds were “forgotten by the quake” and the race for aid turned into a do-it-yourself competition for solidarity.

In Ankara’s sights

However, the role of the Kurds could be essential in view of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14. An appointment that the ruling party also intends to carry out in the areas affected by the earthquake, although these days enormous difficulties are already arising in the registration process to put the result in doubt. Hence the increasing use of force, inside and outside the borders, to put down any possible form of revolt. This is the context in which dozens of officials from the pro-Kurdish party HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) and the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) were arrested in the Suruc district, in southeastern Anatolia, yesterday. Behind the measure are accusations of (alleged) affiliation with “terrorist groups”, with an implicit reference to the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which is banned in Turkey. Local sources report that the arrest – there is talk of at least 25 people – is “one more step” towards the “suppression” of the aspirations of the Kurds, whose voice and civil liberties are subject, once again, to “serious limitations”. “.

From Turkey to Syria, where last week thousands of Kurds took to the streets of Jinderis – in the Afrin district – to protest the murder of four people at the hands of a pro-Ankara rebel armed group. On the night of Nowruz, the Persian New Year that is celebrated on March 21, some men lit a bonfire to celebrate it, but were surprised by a commando who opened fire. The attackers would have been members of al Jaish al Sharqiya, a separatist group that at the time belonged to Ahrar Sharqiya, which fought against Damascus in the Syrian conflict with Turkish support. For Adam Coogle, deputy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) for the Middle East, the attack against Jinderis must be considered part of “more than five years of human rights violations [de los kurdos] unresolved by the Turkish forces and local Syrian factions”. “Turkey”, added the expert, “has allowed these fighters to abuse the population living in the area with impunity”, becoming in fact “accomplices of the violations “.

A town without a country

The current events are emblematic of the suffering, abuse and violations to which the Kurds, who number between 30 and 40 million, spread across the Middle East, are subjected, although the figures are uncertain due to calculation difficulties. A people without a homeland scattered among Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran, although there are also communities in Armenia and Azerbaijan, with a common destiny: the struggle for autonomy stifled by force and arms by the governments of the nations in which they live. . In the recent past, it was precisely the Kurds who were the first to repel the advance of the Islamic State, which at the height of its expansion conquered half of the territories of Syria and Iraq (the contribution of the Peshmerga against the advance of Isis from the Nineveh plain towards Erbil was fundamental). Victims in the eighties and nineties of the massacres of Saddam Hussein, who accused them of fighting with the Iranian enemy, today they are the number one target of Erdogan, who considers them an internal and external threat.

For at least five years, Ankara has wanted to create a “buffer zone” to root out the union between the Syrian, Iraqi and Turkish Kurds and the autonomist drift of the southeast, whose repression is the true objective of intervention in the Syrian conflict. Bombing operations and air strikes to extinguish the dream of “Rojava”, which together with Iraqi Kurdistan represents the most explicit encouragement to Kurdish secession in Turkey. An explosive situation that is part of the broader framework of confrontations between powers and wars in the region, including the one being waged against Isis and jihadist movements. A confrontation that opposes Iran and Syria under the Russian umbrella, on the one hand, and Europe, the United States, the Gulf (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar) and Turkey, on the other. However, in the latter there are other competing interests, alliances and goals at stake to complicate the Middle East puzzle.

The balance needle

Facing the elections in Turkey, which represent a key step for the political future of Erdogan and the country, several analysts agree that the role of the Kurdish minority is paramount. Hence the attempt by both the government and the opposition to get their consent, while the main party, the HDP, decided not to present a candidate and implicitly supported the so-called anti-Erdogan “Table of Six”, headed by the leader of the CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The polls show a balance between the two fronts, so the HDP itself (which has a potential electoral base of more than 10%) could act as a needle in the balance, although the attempt by the courts to remove it could force it to reform under a new symbol. A Kurdish institutional source from Diyarbakir, on condition of anonymity, told : “Certainly, the Kurdish electorate will play a very important role in determining the outcome of the vote, even taking into account an electoral basin of 8 million people. And from what we hear the trend is to support Kilicdaroglu in the presidential elections and to the Green Left Party in parliamentary elections”. “Certainly,” the source continued, “the issue of the earthquake will weigh on the vote, which continues to determine people’s lives. Many of them remain homeless, have lost family and friends, in a context of pain and despair.” Finally, the earthquake has fed “the resentment of many towards the government and the management of the country” and for this reason, he concluded, “I think that the AKP will end up losing a good part of its electorate.”

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