Are you saying 'Terrorist leader-PKK-DEM equals Kurds'?!

Are all officials, starting with Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, not explaining that the PKK/KCK leaders and the terrorist leader Öcalan—that is, those who martyred our soldiers and police—will absolutely not benefit from the law passed in Parliament with a record number of votes?..

Did MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli, who was the architect of the PKK opening himself, not just recently say, "There is no turning back from the fight against terrorism"? And this was while he was arguing that the "coordination of the peace process and politicization" was the "right" of the terrorist leader in İmralı!..

Did Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi not emphasize just two days ago that "absolutely no negotiations have been held with terrorist organizations and no concessions have been made"?..

Could they be accused of "inciting the public to hatred and hostility or insulting them" because of these statements!?..

What do we mean?

The Banner in Düzce

First, let's go to Düzce on the night of October 5.

A banner reading, "No amnesty for the murderers of our children! There is no negotiation with terror, there is only the fight," was hung on the Victory Party (Zafer Partisi) Provincial Headquarters building.

Let us convey the rest from the police statement of Provincial Chair Hülya Eroğlu, against whom proceedings were initiated on charges of "inciting the public to hatred and hostility or insulting them" due to this banner.

When Eroğlu was asked, "What is your purpose in hanging this banner?" she explained the following in summary:

"I was called by phone around 23:00 on October 5. The person calling introduced himself as a police officer and said, 'There is a complaint about the banner, it needs to be removed due to this complaint.' I stated that I wanted to know who made the complaint and to see the prosecutor's instruction. He stated that they did not have information about the complainant. I said that I was not available at that hour, that I could not go to the party building to remove the banner, that I could come the next day, and that I also wanted to see the prosecutor's instruction, and then I hung up. Around 00:00, I learned that the fire department and the police had come to our party building and that the banner had been taken down by the fire department. I hung the banner both as a requirement of our party policy and as a requirement of the constitutional right given to us by the indivisible integrity of the homeland, the cherished memory of our martyrs and veterans, and the secular, national, unitary Republic of Turkey. We possess a mindset that lives and serves the homeland in line with Atatürk's definition of the Turkish Nation and the definition in our Constitution, without any distinction of color or race. Furthermore, there is no terrorist organization or mass mentioned on the banner."

At the end of her statement, Provincial Chair Eroğlu filed a complaint against the police officers and fire department personnel on duty on the grounds that they committed "theft" of the banner by entering the party building without permission and without any court/prosecutor order, and that they also obstructed political party activities and freedom of thought, and violated the sanctity of the workplace. Three days later, together with her lawyer Şener Bakbak, she filed a criminal complaint with the Düzce Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and requested that an investigation be opened against the aforementioned personnel.

Vinegar Water in Muğla

A week after this incident in Düzce, the following happened in Muğla:

Banners reading "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan" were unfurled at a minimum wage protest organized by DEM in Sınırsızlık Square.

Upon this, members of the New Welfare Party (Yeniden Refah Partisi) washed the area where the protest was held with vinegar water, and Provincial Chair Fatih Kocabıyık made the statement, "I gave instructions to my organization; we will wash this place with vinegar water and castile soap for forty days. Cleaning is only possible this way."

It was not the prosecutors, but the DEM members who took action. Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Pervin Buldan, who was on the İmralı delegation, reacted by saying, "The honor of the Kurdish people will not be dirtied by your vinegar water. Those who engage in politics with hatred, discrimination, and racism will go down in history with their own shame."... DEM Spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan described this as "not political criticism, but clearly racism"... The very next day, DEM's lawyers filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office against Provincial Chair Kocabıyık on charges of "insult, publicly inciting the public to hatred and hostility or insulting them, and hate and discrimination."

Let us also underline the following allegations in the criminal complaint:

"That the act carries the quality of insulting the Kurdish identity and the Kurdish political movement... That the event should also be evaluated in terms of the peace and democratic society process being carried out in Turkey..."

As for Provincial Chair Kocabıyık's response to these reactions and accusations? He said the following:

"We carried out this cleaning not because the DEM Party held a minimum wage protest, but because separatist propaganda was openly made by unfurling banners reading 'Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan' in the square. Let no one fall into the distortion and absurdity of reducing this justified reaction of ours to racism. Making statements in Muğla Square in the direction of 'We will establish Kurdistan' or 'Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan' is openly challenging this state and treating this nation like fools. We do not forgive those who distort the issue and portray us as if we are engaging in racism and target us."

Kocabıyık also emphasized this:

"Since even my dear wife, with whom I share my life, is of Kurdish origin, it is very clear that our issue is never an ethnic origin or race issue."

However, the reaction of New Welfare Party Chairman Fatih Erbakan was no different from the DEM members. After stating that they never approved of this act, that the necessary warnings were given to the organization, and that the dismissal of the provincial administration was on the agenda, Erbakan linked the event to "anti-Kurdishness" with the following expressions:

"We are a party that follows the policies of our teacher Erbakan regarding the East and Southeast in the same way. Whatever mindset our teacher Erbakan, who approached the people of the region most warmly, defended the rights of the people of the region for years, and made the most important and largest investments in the region, had, we as the New Welfare Party have that same mindset. It is out of the question for us to exclude anyone or subject them to discrimination... We inherited our legacy regarding Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood from our teacher Erbakan. We are extremely sensitive about this issue."

Who Has the Right?

Moving from these two events, we will come to this point:

It is known that both he himself and the PKK-DEM try to make everyone accept that the terrorist leader in İmralı is the so-called "leader" not only of the Kurds in our country but also of those of Kurdish origin in Syria, Iraq, and Iran.

Bese Hozat, who is at the head of the PKK's 30-Kalashnikov-burning show, said just recently once again, "Leader Apo is the Kurdish identity, he is the Kurdish people. Leader Apo is not a person, he is a collective identity... Our people treat him that way too... The approach to Leader Apo is the approach to the Kurdish people and the Kurdish issue."

But not a single official came out and gave the loud response, "No, the terrorist leader is not the leader, representative, or guide of our citizens of Kurdish origin."

Except for HÜDA-PAR Chairman Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu. When it came to the agenda of the PKK commission in Parliament going to İmralı, Yapıcıoğlu, who said, "I will not go. Öcalan is not the representative of all Kurds. He may be the representative of his own organization and those who accept him as such. There are millions of Kurds outside of these," also emphasized the day before yesterday that only the disbanding of the PKK and the renunciation of weapons could be negotiated with Öcalan, and said, "We have never had any meetings with the PKK. It is an illegal organization."

In short; does showing the banner "No amnesty for the murderers of our children! There is no negotiation with terror, there is only the fight" and the reaction shown to DEM within the scope of the crime of "inciting the public to hatred and hostility or insulting them" not mean the de facto acceptance of the claim of the terrorist leader-Qandil-DEM that "We are the representatives of the Kurds"?!

Then, let us recall these words of Bahçeli during the first opening process:

"Attempting to associate separatist terror with my brothers of Kurdish origin will assign a guide to terror and add spirit to its struggle against humanity, and neither the AKP nor the CHP has the right or authority to do this."

Müyesser YILDIZ

October 19, 2026