Meral Aksener, leader of the far right IYI (Good) party, was visiting Siirt, southeast Turkey on Thursday when she stopped by the shop of Cemil Taskesen, who engaged her in a discussion about human rights violations against Kurds.
“Our language, identity, and Kurdistan are being denied. We are against this. We do exist! The people currently present here are all Kurds and the place you are standing on is called Kurdistan. But unfortunately, Kurdistan is denied in the parliament,” he told her in video published by state media.
Aksener replied: “Being a Kurd, Turk, Alevi or Sunni is something related to ethnic affiliation. Everyone should respect people’s religious and sectarian affiliations. You may say ‘Here is Kurdistan’... but it is different for others."
The exchange went viral on social media and Taskesen was widely praised by Kurds, but the next day he was arrested.
The tradesman “who propagated for the terror organization was detained on October 29, 2021 at his house following an investigation, which continues,” tweeted Halit Aziz Yilmaz, head of Siirt police, referring to the PKK.
Taskesen was released later the same day.
Kurds launched a social media campaign to call for Taskesen’s release.
The PKK is an armed group struggling for the increased political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey. It is designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara. Allegations of ties to the PKK are frequently made in criminal cases against Kurds.
Meral Danis Bestas, a lawmaker of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), joined calls for Taskesen’s release, saying he was arrested “as if he had committed a serious crime.”
The lawmaker, who represents Siirt, said Kurdish presence has been denied since the establishment of Turkey exactly 98 years ago.
The Diyarbakir Bar Association has also demanded Taskesen’s release as his comments fall under freedom of expression.
This is not the first time the use of the word “Kurdistan” has created controversy in Turkey. In 2017, HDP lawmaker Osman Baydemir was suspended from parliament for saying Kurdistan in the parliament.
Kurds consider Kurdish-populated areas in southeast Turkey, northern Iraq (Kurdistan Region), western Iran, and northeast Syria (Rojava) to be part of Greater Kurdistan, which was divided up by Western powers a century ago when they redrew the map of the Middle East.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended the usage of the word “Kurdistan” in September 2013 while he was prime minister, during the early months of a historic but short-lasting peace process between Ankara and the PKK.
Erdogan told journalists that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, had used the word Kurdistan around a century ago. “Is Hero Mustafa Kemal a separatist for using this word?” he asked. “These are facts in our history. If we take the matter all the way to the Ottoman Empire, it is already very clear there.”
The Turkish state has at times denied the existence of Kurds.
Updated at 6:53 pm
