Turkish government gets the alarms anytime any activity happens in Diyarbakır or in the Eastern provinces. Because the area is inherently and historically Kurdish. Yet, the Turkish government is imposing a top-down racist, nationalist, religious agenda.

Anything that enforces Kurdish identity is an action Turkey deems as “terrorist”, or a “security risk.” This includes speaking in Kurdish by a population that considers it their mother tongue and are about 25% of the entire citizens of the country.

This means the region is under constant watch of the Turkish government and all inhabitants, tens of millions of them, are all suspects.

This was proven once again couple of days ago when a photography exhibition was banned by Turkey for no reason that makes sense.

The exhibition was to honor the slain Kurdish lawyer and the chairman of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, Tahir Elçi.

Tahir Elçi was murdered during his reading of a press release demanding an end to violence in Turkey. Violence is mostly perpetrated by the Turkish police, the army, or the “special forces” who intimidate, threaten, detain people and harass the citizens for no reason other than their being Kurdish.

The entire Kurdish resistance is considered to be “terrorism” for Turkey.  Tahir Elçi proposed Turkey to talk to the Kurds to settle the disagreements instead of sending tanks, fighter jets, prisons and torturers. He advocated for a civilized negotiation and acceptance of Kurds as citizens in Turkey with their full minority and ethnic rights like being able to speak their mother tongue. For demanding a dialogue with the Kurds he was detained by Turkey with charges of “terrorism.”  He represented the families of the people who were brutally massacred by Turkey in the European Court of Human Rights and was successful in getting a ruling against Turkey on massacring civilians, women and children.

His assassination in public while reading a press statement is considered to be a very well planned execution involving the Turkish State by the Kurds.

The leader of the left-liberal opposition party HDP Selahattin Demirtaş who is in prison with trumped up charges by the Turkish government said the bullet that killed Mr. Elçi had been fired from a Turkish official’s gun.

His assassination took place on November 28^th 2015 in Diyarbakır.  Recently, the organizers in Diyarbakır wanted to commemorate the life of Tahir Elçi with a photography exhibit. The show was to be named “Peace and Freedom.” However, the showroom which is owned by the government suddenly revoked the permit with no previous warning just as the exhibit was to open. The reason given was “Too much interest in the event, too crowded exhibition.”

The event was prepared well in advance and justices, lawyers, bar association leaders and human rights advocates had travelled from around the country to attend. There were 44 pictures from 44 artists in the exhibition.

After the permit was revoked, the justices and lawyers decided to carry on with the exhibition by carrying each piece of art in their hands to the Justice Building and marching and protesting with the pictures.  This way they were able to join forces with the “Guarding Justice” demonstration in front of the Justice Building.

“Guarding Justice” is a mobile protest against the unlawful practices of the Turkish government against human rights, Kurdish and other minorities. The demonstrations are taking place in many cities of the country and moves from one city to the other. The demonstrators demanding justice across the country had just came to Diyarbakır and were already protesting in front of the Justice Building.

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