Raise the scream of Dersim!

The fascist dictatorship of Erdoğan keeps on escalating the dirty war of the colonialist Turkish state against Kurdish people to a higher level of hostility and barbarianism which exposes itself in targeting the whole living life in Northern Kurdistan, Dersim, together with its peoples and natural enviroment as well as its historical values and collective memory.

It has been over than a month that the mountains of Dersim, which is officially located within the borders of the Turkish state, have been burning due to the bombardments of the Turkish airforces under the name of military operations against the guerrilla forces in the region. Far from responding to the fires so far, the Turkish state declared the areas as restricted in order to prevent peoples' self-mobilization for taking the fires under control. Against various ways of suppression and bans, the peoples of Dersim had once managed to put out the fire, however right afterwards, the Turkish aircrafts spread its fire over the area once again in order to keep Dersim in flames. So far, thousands of hectares of forests together with various living species have burned down; the sacred areas of the Alevi people, their worship places and cemeteries have been destroyed.

Since from its foundation, the monist nation state of Turkey has been imposing de-identification and exile policies to the peoples of North Kurdistan, Dersim in particular, through various ways of oppression and massacres. However, the honorable peoples and lands of the Dersim region have never kneel down against those colonialist fascist regulations of the Turkish state and kept on their spirit of resistance alive thus far.

Carrying on this traditional colonialist mission today, the fascist dictatorship of Erdoğan's attempts to keep the lands of Dersim in a continuous besiege and fire stand much more than only breaking the will of the many guerrilla forces fighting on the mountains of Dersim for freedom and socialism under the umbrella of the united revolution struggle of Turkey and Kurdistan. It's main goal is to destroy this honorable spirit, culture and collective memory of resistance that Dersim historically upholds all together with its peoples and natural environment.

We condemn the colonialist dictatorship of Erdoğan for its massacrist efforts aiming to destroy the whole living life in North Kurdistan on behalf of the ongoing fires in Dersim region!

We call all progressive, revolutionary, democratic forces to be in solidarity and raise the scream of Dersim resisting with its vanguard guerrilla forces and peoples, as well as its forests, oak trees, rivers, birds, deers and all living species which will never kneel down against this barbarianism!

September 9, 2018

MLKP Turkey/Kurdistan
International Bureau