HDP’s Gökova: Where there is oppression, there is resistance

The release of those who carried out an armed and knife attack on an office of the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party)  in Istanbul has sparked public reaction.                                                                 

Hüseyin Gökova, one of the administrators of HDP Ankara Provincial Organization, spoke to ANF about the recent increase in physical attacks against the HDP and the release of the attackers.

POLICE MISHANDLING RELATED TO STATE POLICIES

Gökova noted that the attacks on his party have a long history. He expressed that the political climate in Turkey has changed after HDP’s former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş’s motto ‘We will not make you president’ during the previous presidential elections and the positive reactions of the opposition.

“There was a ‘solution process’ in 2013. This process helped the dissidents, Kurds, socialists and Alevis in Turkey to thrive a little more. Attacks on our party are not a new thing and will probably continue. The bomb attacks against our  party offices in Mersin and Adana, the bombing at our rally in Amed two days before the June 7 elections were the beginning of all these events. Last June, we lost our comrade Deniz Poyraz after a fascist attack on our İzmir headquarters. The mishandling of the police cannot be separated from the general attitude taken by the state; the way the murderer was treated led to public indignation across the country. The state, for its part, does not forget important dates. Mobs attempted to attack our party office despite the police presence in front of our provincial and district organizations on the day of the trial. It is not possible to organize such attacks without the knowledge of state officials. One needs to interpret it that way.”

THE STATE ORGANIZES THE ATTACKS

Gökova also talked about the policies seeking to make HDP youth into spies working for the state. “The state has certain policies against opposition groups. First, it is necessary to look at the way the state governs. We know that the political system in Turkey is a fascist one. There is nothing more natural than resisting an oppressive regime.

Together with its components, the HDP seems to be the only party that may form the backbone of the main opposition in Turkey. One of the reasons is the fact that the party is active on the streets. This is why young people support our party. Recently, young people are carrying out various actions related to the housing problem and the state is attacking them in a systematic way. State officials want to eliminate the party from within. Young people are offered to work on behalf of the state. Spying might also be imposed within a democratic union or an opposition political party. This is happening not only against our own youth, but also against all political opposition in the country. We see this from the applications received by the Human Rights Association (IHD). Our Sincan District co-chair Fatma Kılıçarslan was abducted after she left work, but she was released within half an hour, since the opposition groups in Ankara acted against it immediately. In other words, we believe that where there is oppression, there is also resistance, and where there is resistance, there is always hope.”

Gökova also underlined that the assassination of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez in Paris on January 9, 2013 and the murders of Sêvê Demir, Pakize Nayır and Fatma Uyar in Silopî on January 6, 2016 cannot be considered separately from the state system. “Wherever you resist, you find yourself targeted by persecution in a more systematic way. During a night raid, police officers dare to write ‘we came, you weren’t there’ on a wall. In fact, we are faced with an extra-legal order.

WE WILL PUT UP HISTORIC RESISTANCE

Gökova recalled the massacres that have taken place in Turkey since the foundation of the Republic. “The Turkish state even sought to create its own communist party and dared to have communist leader Mustafa Suphi and his comrades strangled in the Black Sea region. After the Greek and Armenian pogroms, there was the Dersim massacre in 1937-38. After the massacres in Kızıldere, Suruç and others, we witnessed the biggest massacre of the Republic of Turkey at Ankara Train Station in 2015. There has been constant persecution against socialists, Armenians, Alevis and other faith groups. However, we will not hesitate to put up historic resistance while the state keeps busy with its own massacres.”