Turkish state has taken the assaults against its Kurdish citizens several notches up.  It seems the entire plan to devastate the Kurds is based on the plan of a civil war to whip up the racism and nationalism ingrained in its DNA from the very first days of the “modern” Turkish republic.  If the racism is escalated to a desired level before the November 1st early elections, the outgoing Justice and Development party (JDP-AKP) expects to see its votes rise and stay in power.

Turkish racist state and government are still not aware that they are playing with fire.

Kurds are not the Kurds of 1930’s when the new Turkish state could go into Turkish Kurdistan and mow down thousands of unorganized Kurdish citizens with its army, police and even aerial bombardments with Kemal Ataturk’s adopted daughter leading in the sorties against its own citizens.  To honor her legacy of being the first woman to bomb the civilian Kurds from the skies, an airport in Istanbul was named after her, Sabiha Gokcen .

After losing the power in the June 7 elections, president Erdogan illegally declared that he had unilaterally changed the Turkish regime, whether the people liked it or not, then declared the temporary cease fire between the Kurds and the Turkish state annulled and again unilaterally started an open war against the Kurds.  Trying to defend themselves, the Kurds decided to exercise democracy against the dictatorial Turkish regime.  Some towns declared “self-rule,” a democratic promise given to the Kurds during the so-called war of independence to lure them to the side of the new Turkish rulers.  These promises of self-rule were forgotten as soon as the new republic secured its place on the map with the help and support of the Kurdish population and a reign of terror ensued against the Kurds.

Taking their cue from 2013 June popular resistance against the Turkish state’s assaults to privatize the Gezi Park in Istanbul, and the establishment of a perfect democratic structure during the peoples’ resistance, Kurds stepped in to do the same.  Instead of accepting the edicts of an unelected, appointed bureaucrats from the central government, Kurds decided to take their own fate into their hands using democracy as their tool.

However, democracy is a luxury in Turkey that the state can not afford.

Equating democracy to treason and using that excuse the civil war plan of Erdogan emerged with full force.  Kurdish towns like Cizre were put under siege for days on end.  Using heavy artillery, armed vehicles, tanks and any lethal means including aerial bombing entire towns came under attack.  10 day siege of Cizre was only lifted when thousands of activists, assembly members, neighboring villages staged a march to the town through fields, hills and mountains.  The march took days but people were able to break the Turkish blockade and entered the town on foot.  The devastation in the town was indescribable.  Sharp shooters on the roof tops had assassinated anybody, men, women, children who had dared to step outside of their homes.  Since the Turkish police and army did not allow any movement of even the ambulances, many dead bodies who had either been shot by the army, or lost their lives from other causes had to be kept in refrigerators during this time even though the Turkish forces had blown away the power transformers to keep the people in the dark.

Less than a week after Cizre’s siege, now the Turkish state has turned its attention to the town of Beytussebap, another Kurdish town.  According to DIHA, a news agency that reports from the Eastern Turkey, the town of Beytussebap has been under heavy artillery fire all night long.  DIHA itself has been in the crosshairs of the Turkish state and all access to its sites have been officially blocked.

The first news from the town was that the Turkish army barracks were now under attack from the HDP organization, the army of PKK.  The report indicated that HPG had attacked the soldiers at 5:30AM and simultaneously targeted the Turkish army barracks, police living quarters and the police headquarters.  The Turkish army then started a counter attack which extended to the residential areas.  Turkish army started artillery fire against Tatar neighborhood after about an hour later.  The clashes and heavy bombarding was still continuing around 9:00PM.

After more support arrived to save the Turkish forces the army continued their assault on the civilians with vengeance.  Around 10 homes and a mosque were destroyed in Beytussebap by morning.  Trying to take over the town the army then entered Beytussebap with armed vehicles and indiscriminately fired upon anyone they saw on the streets.  The entire rows of stores in downtown were destroyed by the army.  The real target however was the offices of the opposition pro-Kurdish HDP and DBP parties.  The government had asked people only two days ago to stop the advance of their electoral opposition by isolating these parties.  HDP is seen as the main reason the government has lost its position in the June elections.  The party offices were destroyed by shots from the army’s armored vehicles.

Expanding their attacks, the army opened artillery fire to Setkar, Tilbes, Farasin, Meydan, Germav, Gernex and Tivor villages also. 3 people lost their lives and 2 people were seriously wounded in Setkar where a residential house was hit directly. Under heavy police fire, the dead and the wounded were taken to the hospitals. The dead and wounded in that home were the relatives of the ex-mayor of Beytussebap.  Recently Turkey has been arresting the mayors of the Kurdish towns for trying to exercise their democratic rights.  Many mayors and co-mayors of Kurdish towns are sent to prison for implementing a more direct rule where the population is engaged and has a say in the day to day decisions on their lives and in their towns.  Turkish system, formed under the heavy dictatorial hand of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk has no tolerance for diversity since the model of governance is based on the ascending fascist countries in 1930’s Europe where the worship of One State, One Nation, One Flag, One Religion, One Leader is prevalent .

During the clashes the news of an ambulance taking a hit was shared by the high Turkish officials but the event was presented to the media and the people as Kurds being responsible for the attacks.  Turkish minister of health said the Kurds had killed the ambulance driver and had kidnapped two paramedics.  And he publicly threatened the Kurds swearing they would pay for these crimes.  However, when the photographs, witness accounts and videos emerged the next day, it was obvious that the official’s account was not correct.  The ambulance, called in to carry the wounded policemen, had been sprayed with automatic rifles very close to the police check point and all bullets had entered the vehicle from the direction of the police station.  The ambulance was only 20 yards from the police station when the attack happened.  Those two paramedics the minister claimed to have been kidnapped b the Kurds had taken refuge in a nearby house, running from the police fire and had checked themselves to the Turkish state hospital and were in good health.

In the meantime all communication with the town has been severed but witnesses reported seeing Israeli and US made helicopters used by the Turkish army landing and flying all day and night long.

Many Kurdish and Turkish organizations, socialists and progressives are preparing to travel to Beytussebap to show solidarity with the Kurdish victims of the Turkish state’s violence as they had done to Cizre last week.

Sendika.org news (Mehmet Bayram)