Hasan Cemal • Writing these lines, I feel as if I’m chocking…

Türkçe T24 | Français | English

“Is hope haram1in Arabic, illicit, forbiddenfor us, is dreaming haram, is peace haram?

Turkey, a coun­try of the ceme­tery of Par­ties…
A word to often writ­ten, hashed over…
Yes, but it express­es a real­i­ty.
State Coups…
Par­ties dis­solved…
Gal­lows…
Tor­ture cham­bers
Polit­i­cal pro­hi­bi­tions…
Politi­cians thrown in prison…
Exiles…
Our Repub­lic is full of them.
In all, 30 Par­ties have been dissolved.

Draw­ing: Selçuk Demirel

The result?
Has democ­ra­cy arrived in the coun­try?
No.
Has peace knocked at our door?
No.
Have we become a coun­try of Rights?
No.
The “Kur­dish Par­ties“
For­bid­den and ban­ished since 1989,
That have been dissolved…

HEP… 2Halkın Emek Par­tisi: Peo­ple’s Labor Par­ty
ÖZEP…3Özgür­lük ve Eşit­lik Par­tisi: Lib­er­ty and Equal­i­ty Par­ty
ÖZDEP…4Özgür­lük ve Demokrasi Par­tisi: Par­ty of Lib­er­ty and Democ­ra­cy
DEP…5Demokrasi Par­tisi: Democ­ra­cy Par­ty
HADEP…6Halkın Demokrasi Par­tisi: Peo­ple’s Democ­ra­cy Par­ty
DEHAP…7Demokratik Halk Par­tisi: Peo­ple’s Democ­ra­cy Par­ty
DTP…8Demokratik Toplum Par­tisi: Demo­c­ra­t­ic Soci­ety Par­ty
BDP…9Barış ve Demokrasi Par­tisi: Peace and Democ­ra­cy Party 

All of them were removed from the scene, shut down.
Their doors were sealed , and then what?
Despite all the oppres­sion, all the polit­i­cal car­nage
The Kur­dish polit­i­cal move­ment has con­tin­ued pre­serv­ing
Its exis­tence, its live­li­ness.

Late­ly, the HDP 10Halk­ların Demokratik Par­tisi : Peo­ples’ Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­tyis still around.
6 mil­lion votes…
Votes rep­re­sent­ing 12% of the total…
And 67 deputies…

Now, they want to wipe it out.
Its deputies are thrown in prison.
Its may­ors are thrown in prison.
And warn­ing signs of its dis­so­lu­tion
Are mul­ti­ply­ing.
If you shut it down, what good will it serve?
Through­out the Repulic’s his­to­ry
You have imposed on the Kurds
The worst of per­se­cu­tions, oppres­sion, denial of rights, injus­tice…
You have built gal­lows.
You have put human beings
Through tor­ture cham­bers
Such as in the Diyarbakir mil­i­tary prison.
You made them eat shit,
Shit…
That was not enough, you destroyed their homes.
That was not enough, you burned down their vil­lages.
That was not enough, you destroyed the Kurds’ hope for peace.
You oblit­er­at­ed all hope of peace.
They left with­out find­ing peace
They left in an absence of lib­er­ties.
That was­n’t enough for you, tell me, that was­n’t enough?
I ask:
For what result?
What did you obtain?
What has changed?

Draw­ing: Selçuk Demirel

Writ­ing these lines, I feel as if I’m chock­ing.
Yes, that’s it.
With the hope of peace, the hope of democ­ra­cy, the hope of Right and jus­tice, with the hope of lib­er­ty
Writ­ing the same things for years, writ­ing, writing…but not mov­ing for­ward not even by a crumb…
What a great dis­ap­point­ment…
What a great con­ster­na­tion…
And now, yet again, every­thing to be swept away?

Go ahead.
Dis­solve the HDP also…
Open the doors to even big­ger gaols…
Open them wide…
Trans­form Kur­dish towns into fire zones
Have them relive once more what they have lived already…
Nar­row the polit­i­cal space even fur­ther.
Reserve the polit­i­cal space for your­selves only
Reserve it so that those who do not think as you do
Reach the point where they can no longer breathe.
Do not allow the oppo­si­tion a right to live.
Asphyx­i­ate the lib­er­ties even more.
Total­ly cut off the voice and the breath of the Kurds.
Go on, what are you wait­ing for?
Shut down the HDP.
As our dear Ahmet Altan wrote
In 2009 fol­low­ing the dis­so­lu­tion
Of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Soci­ety Par­ty (DTP):

“For us hope is haram.
Dream­ing is haram for us
Peace is haram for us.
What young Kurd would trust
This coun­try ever again?
What Kur­dish per­son would trust
Jus­tice ever again?
Would they not think that every­thing is deceit
Lies, impos­ture?
Would they not be right in think­ing so?”

In shut­ting down the HDP, you who wish to set the coun­try on fire,
In order to win elec­tions,
Get this through your head:
With­out roads lead­ing to democ­ra­cy open­ing up…
With­out a widen­ing of the spaces avail­able for demo­c­ra­t­ic pol­i­tics…
With­out any progress in the envi­ron­ment of lib­er­ties…
Noth­ing will change.
You will not obtain the result you are seek­ing.
Because we have already lived through all this in the past…
So much suf­fer­ings have been expe­ri­enced that the day has come
When they have become the strength of those sub­ject­ed to them.

Yes, I feel as if I’m chok­ing
As I write these lines…
How dis­tress­ing.

Hasan Cemal

Hasan Cemal was born in 1944 in Istanbul. Writer and journalist he was editor in chief at Cumhuriyet (1981–1992), at Sabah (1992–1998). He has written for the Milliyet which he left after one of his columns was turned down.

He has led discussions with prominent PKK leaders. He has recognized the Armenian genocide without finding excuses for it, a crime partly perpetrated by his grandfather Djemal Pacha, Talaat Pacha and Enver Pacha.

He is the author of several books notably on democracy, the Kurds and the Armenian genocide.

Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges

*A word to English-speaking readers: in all instances where the original text is in Turkish or Kurdish, the English version is derived from French translations. Inevitably, some shift in meaning occurs with each translation. Hopefully, the intent of the original is preserved in all cases. While an ideal situation would call for a direct translation from the original, access to information remains our main objective in this exercise and, we hope, makes more sense than would a translation provided by AI…

You may use and share Kedistan’s articles and translations, specifying the source and adding a link in order to respect the writer(s) and translator(s) work. Thank you.

Auteur(e) invité(e)

Auteur(e)s Invité(e)s

AmiEs con­tributri­ces, con­tribu­teurs tra­ver­sant les pages de Kedis­tan, occa­sion­nelle­ment ou régulièrement…