MEDİNE MAMEDOĞLU

Colemêrg (Hakkari)- The “March for the Respect of the Will of People” was initiated by the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on June 30 against the replacement of the elected mayor of Colemêrg (Hakkari) with a state-appointed trustee. As a NuJINHA team, we followed the march for six days, from Van to Hakkari.

Some important points of the march are as follows:

*On June 30, delegations initiated a march in Izmir and Istanbul. They got together in Ankara and Adana and then went to Northern Kurdistan. In Êlih (Batman), they were welcomed with enthusiasm by hundreds of people. The members of the delegations, accompanied with thousands, held a march in the city. After the march, they released a press statement condemning the state-appointed trustee to the municipality in Hakkari. The members of the delegations then went to the city of Van.

*The march in the city of Van began after a press release with participation of thousands from all ages. The members of the delegation began to march from the city center by holding banners reading, “Trustee, Go Away”, “Trustee is a misogynist”, “We do not want a trustee” and “The Trustee will go, the people will come”.

*The marchers headed over to the Gürpınar district of Van. Despite a police and gendarmerie blockade, they marched to the district center with great enthusiasm. They stayed in the district at night. After having breakfast in the district at around 6 a.m., they restarted their march despite hot weather.

*”Remaining silent is tiring, not marching,” said the marchers, demanding the end of trustee policies, the lift of the aggravated isolation imposed on Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan and his physical freedom, the end of torture and rights violations against political prisoners and the end of political genocide carried out in Kurdish cities.

*During the 8-day march from Van to Hakkari, we witnessed a great resistance and many stories. Hundreds of people, who did not know each other, marched together by chanting the same slogans until the end of the march in Hakkari. Some citizens attended the march from Kurdish cities while some attended it from Turkish cities, saying, “I am here for democracy.”

*As we mentioned before, people of all ages attended the march, including women. For six days, they marched by chanting the “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Women, Life, Freedom)” slogan. On the way, they were supported by villagers, Berivan (milkmaid) and shepherds.

*The marchers walked about 30 kilometers every day and arrived at Colemêrg city center on the 8th day. The march turned into a flood of enthusiasm in the city center. Despite the police blockade, they marched and gathered in front of the governor’s building and asked Ali Çelik, the governor of Hakkari and the trustee appointed to the municipality in Hakkari, to go outside from the building.

*What the march teaches is that the greatest weapon is organization and solidarity. Citizens across Northern Kurdistan and Türkiye came together to protest the state-appointed trustee to the municipality in Hakkari and demand the government to respect the will of the people in Hakkari.

*We observed that the people attending the march felt resentment on the last day of the march because they marched together for six days even if they did not know each other. The march was tiring but meaningful for us, journalists. Every step taken by the marches will be remembered in the region for a long time.