While the dialogue process between PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and the state delegation, which started on January 3, 2013, continues, Turkey's longest National Security Council (MGK) meeting on October 30, 2014 was held to plan an all-out attack against the Kurds.  Within the scope of this plan, which was submitted to the General Staff Strategy and Planning Department and called the “Collapse Plan”, the dialogue process was shelved by AKP Chair and Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan. 

 

After the “overturning of the table” by the government, the plan was triggered by the suspicious killing of two police officers in the Serêkaniyê (Ceylanpınar) district of Riha (Urfa) on July 22, 2015. In this context, a comprehensive war concept was put into action on July 24, 2015 with the start of comprehensive attacks against Qandil.

 

Within the scope of this plan, curfews were first declared on August 16, 2015 in Gimgim (Varto) district of Mûş and spread to 11 cities. According to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV), 1,425 people were killed and 2,583 injured during the curfews imposed between August 16, 2015 and June 16, 2016. At least 1 million 809 thousand people were deprived of their right to liberty and security during the curfews. “Political genocide” operations were launched after the implementation of the ‘Collapse Plan’ that destroyed cities. 

 

ARREST AND TRUSTEE POLICIES

 

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MPs including former Co-Chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş, several co-mayors including Amed (Diyarbakır) Metropolitan Municipality Co-Mayor Gültan Kışanak, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Co-Chair Sebahat Tuncel and many other politicians were arrested. According to data compiled by the HDP Legal Commission, between June 24, 2015 and February 1, 2017, 15,370 party members were detained and 3,647 were arrested. In 2016, trustees were appointed to 95 municipalities under DBP administration. 

 

KOBANÊ TRIAL

 

In the ongoing process, many HDP and Kurdish politicians were detained and arrested in September 2020 on the grounds of protests against ISIS attacks on Kobanê on October 6-8, 2014. As a result of the ongoing trials against 108 people, 18 of whom were arrested, politicians were given heavy sentences. 

 

Politician Sebahat Tuncel, who was arrested as a result of the operation that went down in history as the “November 4 political coup” and who is also on trial in the Kobanê case, made evaluations on the “Collapse Plan”, which has left its 9th year behind.

 

2013 DIALOG PROCESS

 

Tuncel reminded the dialogue process initiated in 2013 and stated that during this period 60 articles were enacted in the Parliament as the “solution law”, discussions were held with the Wise People's Committee for the construction of social peace, the Dolmabahçe Consensus and the Women's Freedom Assembly were established. Emphasizing that social support for the process was close to 80 percent. 

 

“After the June 7, 2015 elections, Tayyip Erdoğan suddenly overturned the table and Turkey was dragged back into an atmosphere of war” Tuncel said.  

 

WHY DID AKP OVERTURN THE TABLE?

 

Tuncel said that the AKP government saw the democratic environment that emerged during the dialogue process as a danger for itself, “If the solution process had succeeded, the construction of a Democratic Republic would have been realized and the Kurdish people would have been able to determine their own destiny. The peoples in Turkey would have built a new life on the basis of equal and free citizenship. But the AKP wanted to build a one-man regime. It thought that this process was to its detriment and overturned the table” she said. 

 

STRATEGY CHANGED WITH MGK'S SECRET DOCUMENTS

 

Tuncel stated that after the overthrow of the table, a very serious chaotic and crisis-ridden process took place in Turkey and that the strategy of the AKP changed with the secret documents submitted to the MGK. Tuncel said: “In these secret documents, it was revealed that a Collapse Plan against the Kurds was put into action. The collapse plan included discussions such as the death of 10-15 thousand Kurds, the arrest of 10 thousand Kurds, and the exile of nearly 300 thousand people. On the one hand, the government was supposedly making peace with the society in Turkey, and on the other hand, in the MGK, an important wing of the state, it was realizing the collapse plan against the Kurds. The state was updating its traditional policy of denial, destruction and assimilation.”

 

 STRATEGY ‘KOBANÊ WILL FALL’ HAS COLLAPSED

 

Tuncel stated that Turkey is going through a period in which freedoms and democracy are being abolished in a serious sense and said that after the failed coup attempt in 2016, Tayyip Erdoğan carried out a political coup with political maneuvering. Tuncel stated that Erdoğan dragged Turkey into the current crisis and said: “There was a great resistance in Kobanê. The Kurdish people put up a great resistance against ISIS brutality in Northern and Eastern Syria and failed ISIS. This also means the failure of the AKP's strategy. Because at that time the AKP openly collaborated with jihadist groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda against the Kurds. Tayyip Erdoğan's statement 'Kobani has fallen and will fall' was not just a statement, he wanted this. But the Kurdish people and supporters of the Kurds all over the world stood up and Kobanê was liberated. This also meant Turkey's failure.” 

 

'KOBANÊ IS A CASE OF REVENGE'

 

“The Kobanê conspiracy case is a striking example of the lawlessness against Kurds in Turkey,” Tuncel said, emphasizing that Turkey wants to avenge the failure of its policy with the Kobanê conspiracy case. Stating that the trial is a part of the “Collapse Plan”, and added: “This trial is an intervention against the Kurds and the democratic political arena. When we look at the events in their entirety, the events that took place in those processes have laid the stones for Turkey's development to today. The Kobanê trial should not be considered independently from the AKP's anti-Kurdish policy. The essence of this strategy is Kurdish hostility at home and abroad. During the solution process, there was a law that said 'those involved in this process cannot be tried'. The HDP was institutionally only one of the parties to this process. Many groups in Turkey were involved in this process, but only Kurds were put on trial in the Kobanê conspiracy case.”

 

'KURDISH ISSUE CAN BE SOLVED WITH DEMOCRACY'

 

Noting that the AKP's one-man regime is behind all the lawlessness in Turkey, Tuncel said that the lawlessness applied to Kurds has started to hit other social segments over time. “There is no democratic legal order in Turkey. The existing mechanism disappeared with this government. Turkey has turned into a mafia order. AKP did not really show a will to solve the Kurdish issue. The Kurds have really paid a great price. I believe that the Kurdish issue can be solved through democracy. Therefore, the smallest step, the smallest glimmer of hope is enough for us to support this process. But it is important for us to support it by criticizing and knowing the truth,” Tuncel said.

 

STRATEGY AGAINST THE KURDS

 

Pointing out that the “Collapse Plan” against the Kurds is still in effect even though it failed, Tuncel said: “The plan to defeat and liquidate Kurdish politics is still in effect. Now they feel obliged to take other initiatives and steps. They want to establish the Republic without Kurds, women and Alevis. Politically, they want to build a Turkish-Sunni-male and militarist regime. Kurds proposed a democratic republic against the regime crisis Turkey is going through. Those who run the state know that the regime is in crisis. If the regime wants to see the root cause of the crisis, it should look at the foundation of the Republic. Kurds fought for a common homeland with Turks after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Mustafa Kemal specifically promised this. The 1921 Constitution was built on these principles. But with 1924, all the promises made to the Kurds were forgotten and their language, identity and culture were banned. In 1925, the Eastern Reform Plan was put into effect. Then assimilation and extermination policies were implemented. There were all coup processes in Turkey. Politics has evolved, but the strategy against the Kurds has never changed and continues today.” 

 

'KURDISH ISSUE IMPOSES ITS SOLUTION'

 

Tuncel stated that the Kurdish issue has imposed itself at the point of solution at the current stage in Turkey and reminded that Kurds have been resisting against the policies of denial and annihilation for many years. “The longer Turkey insists on the policies of denial and annihilation, the more it is dragged into insolvency. Turkey is in a strategically important place. But this strategic position has now become ineffective and it has no reputation in the international arena. It is no longer a country of influence in the Middle East. All this is not independent from the politics of war and conflict against the Kurds. Everything from the economic crisis in Turkey to the ecological crisis is related to the Kurdish issue,” she said. 

 

 

'WE ARE FIGHTING FOR PEACE'

 

Stating that Turkey had to change its Kurdish strategy at the current stage, Tuncel said the following about the current debates on the Kurdish issue: “When we look at all these developments, Devlet Bahçeli's visit to the DEM Party group and the recent statements are important. But during the previous dialog process, the 'Collapse Plan' was also in effect. This reality must also be seen. Even though authoritarian fascist regimes always exist through lies, peace imposes itself. We are also struggling for peace. If there is a glimmer of hope for the possibility of peace, we work for it. So some concrete steps are needed to see that they are sincere. Clearing the road is one of these concrete steps.” 

 

MA / Esra Solin Dal