Page 251 - America's Failure to Perceive the PKK

3. Imposition, not freedom: KCK citizenship

One of the most important aspects of the KCK Contract is that it
completely rejects the Republic of Turkey and instead, imposes on

people a so-called "KCK citizenship." For instance, in the fifth article,
it is said that, "Everyone having born and living in Kurdistan, or faith-
ful to KCK system, is a citizen." It is clear that the phrase "Kurdistan"
here is being used for our country's Southeastern region in a brazen
manner. According to the contract, everyone who was born and lives
in Southeastern Anatolia has to accept the contract and therefore, is a
citizen of not the Republic of Turkey, but of the KCK. Let alone vio-
lating the contract, even having differing thoughts is considered a
crime. Violation of the contract will be considered "treachery and sub-

mission" and will be punished. Punishment will be carried out by the
"people's courts," which is a part of the judicial power as defined in
articles 27-30.

This practice was applied even to influential politicians in the
region and was indeed put into practice. For instance, the KCK, via
two cleaning personnel of the Municipality, tried Osman Baydemir,
the former mayor of Diyarbakır, for refusing to participate in a signa-
ture-gathering campaign called "Öcalan is my will". 94

There is no concept of family in the
communal life. Such a system that
abandons the notion of religion, morality,
state and family is the main source of the
violence and degeneration.

249