Revolutionary Anarchist Action (DAF) released a statement about 31th March Mayoral Elections.
Regarding last elections, discussions on Istanbul are going on. Sooner or later one of the mayoral candidates will win. We know the how AKP which talked about love and respect during its campaign, spreads hate in every statement and operation. We know as well, the CHP discourse about its votes “we don’t violate due rights, we will not let our rights be violated”, have never applied to workers of CHP municipalities. We also know that whoever wins, we will not win through elections.
Discussions on Istanbul will continue with all rowdiness. The small difference between the shares of votes will drive these discussions for some time. The discussions on critical cities like Istanbul and Ankara shows that the ever all-capable AKP couldn’t do the poll busting it used to do. However the same AKP won the elections on another critical city, Şırnak due to an undisputed strategy. Şırnak which has never lost its importance for the Kurdish Freedom Movement, have been evacuated for almost four years with a depopulation strategy. The attaches ruined the sewer, water and electric systems.
While the vital needs were not met, the city was blockaded, all entrance and exit were prevented with controls. In addition, 4000 houses were ruined or demolished. The evacuated city was stacked with troops, police and partisans. AKP’s Şırnak votes climbed from under 20% in Mart 30, 2014 to 60% after the attacks of the state which started in 2015. The HDP votes at 35% in March 31, 2019 have been achieved by the ones who stayed in the city in spite of everything. The state could not prevent this 35% in spite of everything, even having the soldiers that were deployed to the city on temporary duty transfer their domicile to Şırnak and vote. The celebrations of the stack in Şırnak as if they are surprised to see the obvious results and “We won Şırnak” news of the partisan media show Şırnak’s importance for the region.
The coup overtly staged in Şırnak, hidden by the discussion on Istanbul, is a move for the “perpetuation” of the State which is very important for Rojava, Başur and Bakur strategies of the Turkish State. For Turkish State, this move is as important as its move to disrupt the integrity the cantons of Rojava. This move disrupts the integrity of municipalities in Bakur. The Nation Alliance bloc’s response to AKP taking the problematic of the perpetuation of the state into a discourse for elections, finding it irrelevant to mayoral elections with its “perpetuation is a problematic of general elections” approach, shows that the Şırnak coup, hidden by the current Istanbul discussions, will never be understood by the Nation Alliance bloc. Furthermore, Nation Alliance bloc supports this move for the perpetuation of the state. The ones who talk about democracy in Istanbul don’t talk about democracy in Şırnak. Because the shares are undisputable. CHP talks a few times about the conditions of the electoral process, but never talks about conditions in Şırnak going on for four years, because what happens in the region before Şırnak is the perpetuation of the state problematic. Şırnak elections is a significant result of the perpetuation of the state discourse and strategy.
Şırnak endures suffering. Even if you bring down in ruins what’s over the ground, even if you level it with the ground, even if you demolish homes, even if you murder people one by one, even if you drive families to exile, what’s under the ground is enough for Şırnak to live. Our people who lost their lives in the struggle for freedom against the attacks of the state, our people who became earth is enough. Their stories are told from mouth to mouth, heard from ear to ear. And don’t forget; Cizre is Şırnak. Silopi is Şırnak. İdil is Şırnak. Roboski too is Şırnak. Tomorrow’s joy, in spite of all the suffering today, will be the peoples’ in struggle. It will be Şırnak’s.