Turkish state forces are trying to keep the residents of Silvan under curfew for the 11th day in a row. However, the Kurdish citizens are not taking it anymore.

Yesterday, on the 10th day of the siege, police tried to kill the co-chair of the opposition party HDP by firing a gas canister directly to her head. The picture of the canister scraping her head went viral as outrage spreads against the military and police’s increased intensity of war against the civilians.

Turkish government is banking on starting a civil war to stay in power. Turkish plan in the region seems to be to help ISIS jihadist terrorists to make way for a Turkish invasion of either or both Syria and/or Iraq. Turkish president Erdogan is bent on becoming the next sultan of the Ottomans by gaining land for Turkey and becoming the caliphate as reported by his close associates.

However, the first obstacle in this plan, if the US gives him permission, is the Kurds. When the Kurdish peshmerge and guerilla forces joined by some Arab forces broke all blockades imposed by Turkey and defeated the ISIL terrorists who were enjoying the support of the US and Turkey, the game changed. Now the Kurds were in the way of the megalomaniac plans of the Turkish president in his quest to become a sultan. Having been denied the majority in the June 7 election by the Kurds together with the Kurdish victory against the terrorists, the Turkish state brought up the attacks against the Kurds several notches.

Town after town in Turkish Kurdistan was blockaded by military forces, police and the special forces as curfews followed. Many reports that the Turkish forces were employing jihadist goons in their attacks against the Kurds surfaced with photographs of terrorists wearing Turkish police vests during attacks against Kurdish towns went viral.

Town of Cizre suffered an 8 day long 24 hour curfew while the town was savagely attacked by sharp shooters, police and the military firing artillery against the civilians.

Latest target is the town of Silvan, similar to Cizre, where more than 90% of the people voted for the pro-Kurdish, progressive HDP party. Obviously the government has decided to punish the town for its support of the Kurdish party.

Before the elections, the president Erdoagn illegally declared, “The regime has de facto changed whether you like it or not.” This declaration was an admission that he was moving towards his ultimate goal of a presidential system he had been advocating where the president is allowed to be a member of a political party, similar to the US system. This way Erdogan is planning on staying as the president as well as using his party to write policy. He has proven that his dream of power grab needs him to be at the head of the JDP-AKP party while also being the president, a situation Turkish constitution does not currently allow. Erdogan does not have the majority votes to change the constitution. However, this did not prevent him illegally declaring the regime change “whether you like it or not” as he has done.

Moving on this illegal and inappropriate power grab, and facing a heightened attack from Turkish forces many Kurdish towns and cities came up with the only alternative for self-defense. Mayors and co-mayors of Kurdish towns started to declare their democratic right of self-rule. With self-rule the Kurdish towns are trying to protect themselves from centrally appointed governors, most of whom are extremely reactionary, religious, government and AKP loyalists. With self-rule the intention is to have the residents get involved in the day-to-day operation of their towns and decisions. Declared self-rules is seen as the best way to implement democracy where women, minorities and all residents participate on how to run the towns with transparency.

Turkish police state used this democratic peoples’ move as an excuse to escalate further the attacks against the Kurds. This excuse was used against Cizre for an all-out attack which tolled 24 deaths from Turkish forces.

The town of Silvan is now being collectively punished for democratic self-rule, voting for their own party in the elections and simply being in the way of Erdogan’s grand plan of marching into neighboring countries and becoming the next sultan. Erdogan is strongly supported by the US and Israel in his sustained help to the jihadists.

After the siege of Silvan, HDP representatives arrived in town to defend the civilians, like forming a human shield. They thought their immunity guaranteed by law would slow down the Turkish assault. They thought wrong. Turkish state fascism does not consider constitution or laws something that would prevent it from its goals of total domination.

HDP delegation came under fire as they tried meeting the residents of the town. They were even bombed from military helicopters trying to prevent the meeting of the people with their representatives. Concerned with the lives of the HDP delegation, Turkish Assembly members immediately travelled to Silvan trying to protect the human shields from being killed by the joint attacks of the police, military, special forces and the Islamist goons from Syria.

Police fired the tear gas canister to the HDP delegation, targeting Figen Yuksekdag in these attempts to prevent HDP meeting with their constituents. Yuksekdag had been the target of pro-government, fascist press for some time. When the canister missed her head by inches, but obviously shaken from the tear and pepper gas the police sprayed the peace delegation with, government and Islamic papers mocked the event as “her makeup was smeared.”

On the 11th day of the siege yesterday, with the HDP representatives and delegation in town, the police sprayed the crowd with machine gun targeting the representatives. Government claims they are breaking the 24 hour curfew when explaining the machine gun fire on hundreds of people. Many people who had travelled to Silvan for solidarity, legal teams, attorneys, human rights observers were in the crowd when the police opened fire. Yuksekdag and other elected Assembly representatives took refuge in a nearby shop.

Sendika.org correspondent Murat Bay reported from Silvan, “The delegation, including Ms. Yuksekdag entered the neighborhood of Konak together with the residents of Silvan. Soldiers stopped the crowd in Konak. They pointed their guns and rifles and threatened the representatives. Elected officials reacted to this illegal threat. While they were negotiating with the security officials, police started using the water cannons on the crowd. Police also sprayed the representatives with pepper gas. Then the police attacked with their shields and batons beating the people. Many people were arrested. The attack is continuing at the time of my report.” Police threatened that everybody including the representatives with immunity would all be arrested.

After the attack reported by Murat Bay above, the clashes spread to the entire town. Smoke could be seen rising from Tekel and Mescit neighborhoods as well.

5 people were wounded as a result of the police attack and were taken to hospitals. However the solidarity delegations are determined to stay in the town and protect the residents from more Turkish state atrocities. Assembly members are staying at the homes of the residents in Silvan.

One representative, Ms. Sibel Yigitalp reported that the police was breaking down doors and illegally searching homes without any warrants. However, she said that nearly all residents are ignoring the police threats and are staying put in their homes. Yigitalp added, “We will stay here with our people no matter what the result is. Everybody should own up to the resistance the people of Silvan is demonstrating.”

Sendika.org/Silvan, DIHA, Jinha (Mehmet Bayram)