Kurds have no right to protest against unfair election practices

The local elections were held on March 29. DTP (a party representing Kurds and Kurdish Cause) gained majority of provinces in the Kurdish regions with a few exceptions. Agri (Agirî) was one of those. It turns out over three thousand DTP votes were not counted. People discovered half burnt ballots in the trash. According to official counts, AKP received 13,884 and DTP received 11,347 votes. Another 3,000 plus votes would bump DTP up to 14347 plus votes, which means DTP was the actual winner. People have been protesting in Agirî but they have faced severe attacks from the police. 79 people have been arrested. European observers were arrested and released after their cameras were wiped clean. A lot of people were injured. Here is an article from mideastyouth.com describing what happened in more detail. The article also includes a video showing how police corners and beats up people. The video is also on youtube. In another gathering in Amara, soldiers attacked the crowd and killed two people. Close to a hundred people were injured. DTP parliamentarian Ayla Akat Ata was attacked and hit by police when she went to visit the injured at the hospital. The AKP police is known to attack women when they get a chance. Here is documentation on beating of women from last year's Newroz celebrations. You can watch and see the women and children beaters in action on youtube as well.

The unfair elections practices in Turkey are not new. DTP's predecessor, DEHAP had actually won in Mersin in 1999 and even the state tv announced DEHAP's victory. But then, magically, a bomb threat was issued for the building where ballots were kept, the minister of internal affairs of the time wwas the hero who walked into the building. No bomb experts were needed to discard DEHAP votes. A count after the threat, of course, made sure DEHAP lost. Before and during the local elections this year, dirty tricks continued to play out. State officials prevented DTP observers from watching the elections in some places or took in observers of every other party but made DTP observers wait outside for some two or three hours while their rivals were inside. The spectrum of unfair practices include threatening locals through government funded drug trading terrorists called korîcî or jash.

AKP and the state has more elusive elections tactics too. They make sure their people start parties with names similar to that of DTP (such as BTP) or find candidates with similar names to their adversaries. The decoy parties and last minute candidates are decoys to steal votes from parties such as DTP or any other rival. When names are close, some people get confused and stamp on the wrong person/party. This dirty tactic has been in place for quite some time now.

Turkey's Minister of Internal Affairs Cemil Cicek made some racist and facist comments on DTP's success in the Kurdish regions. Although Mr. Erdogan said they don't endorse what Mr. Cicek said, AKP didn't condemn him either. A military general basically endorsed what Mr. Cicek said by saying the military is thinking about the election results in the Kurdish regions. In a true democracy, a politician like Mr. Cicek and General Gurak would have to resign. The AKP acronym stands for "Justice and Development Party". If this is the justice AKP and the state stand for, Turkey and its peoples are doomed.