أكراد تركيا: لا نزال نشرب القهوة بينما يستمر القصف علينا!

أكراد تركيا: لا نزال نشرب القهوة بينما يستمر القصف علينا!

نشأتُ في أحد أفقر أحياء ديار بكر، كبرى مدن الجنوب الشرقي في تركيا، حيث أغلبية السكان من الأكراد.

في مطلع ثمانينيات القرن العشرين، بدأنا نسمع عن شكل من أشكال الصراع المسلح في الجبال بين "إرهابيين" والدولة.

وبعد بعض الوقت، سمعنا أن هؤلاء "الإرهابيين" يعرفون باسم "آبوجي". كانوا أكرادا وكانوا يقاتلون من أجل حقوق الشعب

Yes, we still drink coffee!

Yes, we still drink coffee!


I grew up in one of the poor districts of Diyarbakır, the biggest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.

At the beginning of the 1980s, we began to hear that there was some kind of armed conflict in the mountains, between “terrorists” and the state. After a while, we heard these “terrorists” were called “Apocu”. They were Kurdish and fighting for the rights of Kurdish people. Many Kurdish people still had no idea about the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, as the Apocu were formally known.

Some Notes for the Warmongers

Some Notes for the Warmongers

In the last couple of weeks, İnsan Hakları Derneği (Human Rights Association) Diyarbakır Branch has published an important report on human rights violations between the dates July 24, 2015 and July 24, 2017, which attests to the atrocities faced by our society in numbers.

According to this report, in the last 2 years:

- 771 security personnel and 1307 armed militia died in armed clashes. 51 people were caught in crossfire and died.

- 448 people were killed as a result of extrajudicial killings by soldiers, police or village guards (korucu). Most of these deaths took place during the curfews imposed. 75 of them were children.

-14 people died as a result of armored cars hitting them.

- As a result of armed groups actions, 129 people died all around Turkey, 64 of whom were living in Kurdish cities. In Kurdish region, 14 people died after being detained by armed militia or due to attacks committed by them.

- 15 children died due to mines or residues from armed clashes. 56 people died due to fire opened at people near the borders.

In total 2891 people died. 2891 lives lost, 2891 hearts stopped beating! Those injured can go up to 3000.

Is Şırnak one of the 81 cities of Turkey?

Is Şırnak one of the 81 cities of Turkey?

I am in Şırnak, one of the Kurdish cities that was under curfew for 8 months, between 14 March-14 November 2016 . 70% of the city has been totally destroyed. 8 of the city’s 12 districts do not exist anymore. The streets that I walked on before, the parks, the main square of the city, Cumhuriyet Meydanı, where I met together with the Şırnaqi youth years before, none of them exit. There are no streets left. One of the biggest districts, Bahçelievler, with a population of 12.000 has now been flattened. It is hard to believe that there were houses, shops, parks, schools and life before. It is hard for me to believe that I am in Şırnak.

There has been huge destruction in other Kurdish cities; in Cizre, Nusaybin, Yüksekova and Sur as well. None of them are like Şırnak.  Think about a city, that no longer has a city center!

I am like Diyarbakır: Grieving, furious, resentful but still I stand.

I am like Diyarbakır: Grieving, furious, resentful but still, I stand.

Last Friday 370 civil society organizations were closed by the government under the allegation of supporting terrorist groups. 50 of these organizations are based in Diyarbakir, in my city. There are associations that support the families who lost their houses during the curfews or families who live under the poverty line in the Region. Associations that represent women and children rights, Kurdish linguistic rights, “lost” people, reconciliation, Kurdish culture, lawyers rights have all been closed by the government.

Sarmaşık is one the associations that was working on poverty. Sarmaşık had regularly given food support to 32.000 people every month for the past 11 years.

Aren’t we going to question “why did these 1552 people die”?

Aren’t we going to question  “why did these 1552 people die”?

The Diyarbakır Branch of Human Rights Association (İHD) has just released a new report, publishing the results of the last year war between the Turkish government and the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party).

According to İHD’s report, between 24 July 2015-24 July 2016, 1552 people died during the war. 422 of these people were security forces (soldiers, police, village guards), 622 of them were PKK militants. 320 of these people were civilians. 75 of the civilians were children.

34 civilians lost their life due to PKK bombings. The majority of the remaining civilians (286 people) were killed by state security forces. A number of these 286 people died because of not reaching health services due to curfew.

440 deaths were extrajudicial killings.

My Speech on Yazidi Women

My Speech on Yazidi Women

I met her on a dark night, in Baadre, a Yazidi village, on the border of Mosul, in Iraq.  It was the beginning of 2015. She was staying with other women who were saved from Islamic State, ISIS.

Baadre was one of the biggest Yazidi village in South Kurdistan.  The village is just 5 km. from Mosul. When ISIS occupied Mosul, most of the villagers left. Now, the village is home to the Yazidi women who were kidnapped, raped and later saved from ISIS.