class=”sc-3778e872-0 cgWkHT”>
Reyis Büyüksu (59) takes one last puff on his cigarette. Then he blows the smoke, and with it all the frustration, through his tar-stained muzzle into the living room. “All my life I have paid taxes, done military service for this country. What for?” No one cares about them, no one came when his family needed the support so badly.
Büyüksu’s voice breaks, the blue eyes are clouded with tears. It has been six months since his son Baris tried to escape the harsh fate of the Kurds in Turkey – and died in the process. Now his name adorns the bare concrete walls here in the city of Menemen: ‘Baris’, in red, blue, black.
As a martyr, they worship the young man who took a refugee boat to the nearby Greek island of Kos, where he was allegedly beaten to death by Greek thugs. This is stated in the autopsy report, which brings tears to Reyis Büyüksu’s eyes every day.
This led to the rift between Erdogan and the Kurds
Nearly 20 percent of the Turkish population belongs to the country’s Kurdish minority. They are tired of the constant discrimination by the government. The approximately 50,000 deaths in the earthquake in the southeastern part of the country, where many Kurds live, have only increased their anger at the corrupt officials in the state.
Many Kurds want to leave – just like Baris. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s (69) “Justice and Development Party” (AKP) was once well disposed to them. But from 2015, the relationship became more and more murky. The Kurds have demonstrated against Erdogan’s plans for a new presidential system that would give the Turkish prime minister sweeping powers (introduced in 2017 against Kurdish resistance).
After the attempted coup in the summer of 2016, Erdogan again sharpened his tone towards the Kurdish parties, which were reportedly infiltrated by terrorism. And since 2018, the Bosphorus strongman has ruled in a coalition with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which openly flaunts its hatred of the Kurds.
Kilicdaroglu’s promise to the Kurds
“I don’t believe in a system that doesn’t believe in me,” says Umut Büyüksu (27), brother of the late Baris. On his left hand he wears a gold ring with Baris’ effigy on it, and in his right hand he holds a glass of heavily sugared tea. “I will certainly not vote for those who have let us down for years.” After 20 years with the same people, Turkey is in dire need of change.
Sounds like a threat. It is. Because: the votes of the Kurds could cost Erdogan victory in the presidential elections on May 14. The country’s largest Kurdish party, the HDP, won almost 12 percent of the vote in the last election. But now the Turkish government has put the brakes on the HDP. A court will soon decide whether the party will be officially banned.
The HDP has therefore decided for tactical reasons not to have its own presidential candidate and has advised its supporters to vote for opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu (74) instead. Kilicdaroglu, himself a member of the Alevi minority in Turkey, promises no more discrimination against minorities in Turkey.
The smart electoral tactics of the Kurds
But good too, says Giyasettin Altun (66). The retired imam of the mosque in Menemen stands on the busy main street of the city. The warm afternoon air mixes with dust and the call of the muezzin. Behind Altun hang colored flags across the street. Buddhist pennants of peace? No, Turkish election propaganda. They were hanged by the “Green Left” party, which granted political asylum to the Kurdish HDP candidates for the parliamentary elections also taking place today. “I will vote for them, like almost all Kurds here,” says Altun.
President Erdogan must go. He holds the fate of the Kurdish people, indeed of the entire country of 86 million, in his fists. “He locks up our people, throws our leaders in jail.” He demonized the “Kurdish Workers’ Party” (PKK) as terrorists, and now he is taking on the other Kurdish parties. “What did we do wrong?” asks Altun, raising his powerful hands in the air. “We are brothers, we have to get along. Instead, this government considers us second-class, even third-class citizens.” He no longer accepts that.
Maybe he doesn’t have to. According to the latest polls, Kemal Kilicdaroglu is a hair’s breadth ahead of Erdogan – thanks to the votes of the Kurds. The act of political vengeance may well succeed.
Source: Blick
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
