GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

us in prison, they massacre Kurdish people. In 1937 in Dersim the Turkish

State killed 20,000 people, children, women, old, young. In the 1930 there is

the Zilan massacre in the province of Agri where I come from. They

massacred 20,000 Kurdish people. Last year they destroyed our cities. They

used heavy gun against civilians. Sirnak Province is inhabited by 70,000

people. Now half of the city is destroyed, destroyed by Turkish forces. They

said, “We are fighting against PKK”. There was not PKK in the city. A sniper

shoots a 57 year old woman. Her body stayed on a street for ten days. Her

family could not retrieve her body. There was a girl ten years old shot by a

sniper as well. Her mother had to put her into a freezer because they did not

allow them to take her and bury her.

All European countries know about it, all the world knows about it, but they did

not do anything. They just watch it. Yes, there are some reports. It is

important for us they prepare some reports, but they must go beyond the

reports. You have to put sanctions on Turkey. Why do they not do it? I do not

understand. We are talking about Syria. We are talking about Iraq, about

human violations, but when it comes to Turkey we turn a blind eye on it, we do

not see it.

I just want to say that we want to live in a country where no one is

discriminated or subject to any form of oppression or pressure because of the

ethnic backgrounds, beliefs or thoughts. We have to live with our identities, our

beliefs. It does not matter, but we have to respect each other. The only way to

construct a two way peace process and a peaceful democratic future is through

ensuring that everyone lives equally and freely together in society. As the

HDP, this is our goal. We are going to fight for it. We are not giving up hope.

We are going to keep our hopes high and our morals as well.

I want to talk about our MPs. 13 democratically elected Members of Parliament

(our party is the third largest party in Turkey, by the way) were detained

pending trial in November 2016, ten of whom remain in custody. Two of them

are our co-leaders, Mr. Demirtaş and Mrs. Yüksekdağ. 90 of our mayors are in

jail. About 5,000 of our members executive are in jail. What did they do? Did

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