INTERVIEW: MP barred from Turkey Parliament for saying 'Kurdistan' reminds of Galilei

"Nobody can ever erase the existence and truth of Kurdistan from our hearts and minds."

ANKARA, Turkey (Kurdistan 24) – A Kurdish lawmaker who the Turkish Parliament banned from two legislative sessions and fined him 12 thousand Liras (approx. 3,100 USD) for using the word “Kurdistan” in his speech Wednesday, told Kurdistan 24 that the measure could not erase the existence of his homeland.

“They can take our lives if they like, but they cannot destroy the reality of Kurdistan. Those who said the Earth is spherical, too, were tried for telling the truth,” MP Osman Baydemir said, reminding of the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei’s 17th-century inquisition by the Catholic Church.

“Today, when we say Kurdistan exists, [the Turkish state] condemns us. Kurdistan will always exist,” he said in a Thursday interview at his Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) headquarters in Ankara.

Kurdish lawmaker Osman Baydemir gestures toward his heart when the Turkish Parliament's Speaker asks him where Kurdistan is. He received a banishment for two sessions for naming Kurdistan, Dec. 13, 2017. (Photo: HDP)
Kurdish lawmaker Osman Baydemir gestures toward his heart when the Turkish Parliament's Speaker asks him where Kurdistan is. He received a banishment for two sessions for naming Kurdistan, Dec. 13, 2017. (Photo: HDP)

Baydemir was repeatedly asked by the Parliament’s Deputy Speaker Aysenur Bahcekapili where Kurdistan was after he spoke of Kurdistan in his speech during talks on 2018’s national budget.

At which point he pounded on the left side of his chest, saying, “This, this very place is Kurdistan, Mrs. Speaker. Kurdistan is right here.”

“I cannot care less if they take punitive measures against me because I state I am from Kurdistan. What matters to me is what my people want from me. My people of Bakur or Bashur, Rojhelat or Rojava,” Baydemir said, referring to the four parts of the Greater Kurdistan divided among the modern states of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria respectively.

“What we are talking about is not a neologism,” he added.

“From Sheikh Said [leader of the 1925 Kurdish uprising against a young Turkey] to Seyid Riza [who led the Dersim resistance against Ankara during the 1938 genocide], from Qazi Muhammad [executed President of the short-lived 1946 Mahabad Republic of Kurdistan] to the immortal Mullah Mustafa Barzani [father of the Kurdistan Region’s former President Masoud Barzani], all struggled for Kurdistan,” he said.

Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s administration outlawed saying or printing the word “Kurdistan” following his army’s victory over the Sheikh Said rebellion.

“Kurdistan is a cause. Kurdistan is a reality of the Middle East. Where do 40 million Kurds live? They live in Kurdistan. It is true Kurdistan has been divided into four parts that are under occupation. However, all four parts are here,” he said, pounding on his heart, again.

“Nobody can ever erase the existence and truth of Kurdistan from our hearts and minds.”

The punishment for Baydemir was the first execution of a ban on lawmakers’ use of the word “Kurdistan” introduced in July by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)-dominated Parliament.

In an electronic vote, the majority of AKP supported the banishment and a fine for the MP whose party faces an ongoing massive crackdown that has seen HDP Co-leader Selahattin Demirtas, nine lawmakers, 80 mayors, and thousands of members imprisoned.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany 

(Ercan Dag of Kurdistan 24's bureau in Ankara interviewed Baydemir)