The Munzur Culture and Nature festival started in Dersim on the 3rd of August....
90 individuals, artists, intellectuals and journalists and organizations signed a solidarity statement with the three banned groups.
”The essence of the Munzur Culture and Nature Festival, which has existed in the name of the resistance and struggle to protect the nature and culture of Dersim for more than twenty years, is attempted to be obscured by these prohibitions. Undoubtedly, this is the product of a prohibitive mentality that has been practiced before”, the statement says.
On the first day of the festival, a panel discussion against destruction of the local nature by mining was held. During this panel, Munzur Environment Association Board Member Hatun Esen also held a speech in which she condemned the ban imposed on the artists and greeted the struggle against destruction of nature.
Also a panel discussion on the State repression faced by the Alevis was held. In this, the resistance of the people in the face of the repression in Dersim were highlighted: ”These sufferings are inflicted on this city. It is a city where language, culture and belief are forbidden. Despite all these pains, this city is not a city that has surrendered. They are trying to assimilate us, but they will not succeed.”
Music performances were held at the Seyit Rıza Square. Former member of the music group Grup Mengene, Barış Atay, greeted the banned groups and denounced the ban on stage.
The 2nd day
Yeni Demokrasi has reported that the 2nd day of the 21st Munzur Culture and Nature Festival has been completed. We have previously reported on the festival and the repression against it by the old Turkish State. The 2nd day of the festival consisted of panels as well as concerts.
There was panel on “Current Political Developments” that had representatives from Partizan, YSP Dersim, the Socialist Assemblies Federation (SMF), the Labor Party (EMEP) and the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP).
The representative from Partizan, Kazım Tosun, stated his speech by focusing on the attacks against the Munzur Festival that have been going on for years, attacking the very essence of the festival: “ Grup İsyan Ateşi, Grup Yorum and Armenian folk group Veradardz were banned. To this end, let’s say that the organizing committee that organized the festival remained passive and did not take a stance against it. We know that our people will embrace the revolutionary art and revolutionary culture and will be vigilant and stand against policies aimed at isolating revolutionary groups from the people as the state wishes. It has always been like this, our people have always stood by their artists and their struggling revolutionary groups.” (Translators note: All quotes are unofficial translations from Turkish)
Continuing with the topic of developments of the world, Tosun said that the structural crisis of imperialist capitalism continues to deepen, the period of the pandemic caused disruptions in the supply chain, increasing inflation worldwide, and an economic recession was encountered. He said that “as the contradiction between imperialists deepens and market areas narrow, it has to make new moves in terms of expanding its market areas. This is the nature of capital. So what are these new moves? We see that NATO enlargement policies are on the agenda. There are policies developed by Russia against this. This actually became more apparent with the Ukraine war. In other words, at the point where the hegemony of the USA is shaken, other imperialist powers step in, wars continue at the point of the market area.”
Tosun went on to speak about how the State resorted to violent suppression to prevent the accumulated anger of the people from coming to light. Regarding the elections he stated that: “The 14-28 May elections are instructive in many ways and show that the revolutionaries of Turkey have not learned lessons from the past. The Turkish ruling classes forced our people to make a choice between two cliques. In particular, the movements representing reformism in the Turkish socialist movement led the people of Turkey to follow a clique of the ruling classes in general. This situation created the psychological regression, the regression of the people. Our stance here was this: We said in the current elections, that this situation cannot change under the current situation and conditions, that our people should not be directed to the ballot box in this situation, that this will cause a great withdrawal and disappointment among the people, and that the results will be in this situation. We repeat that.” He highlighted the need of examining the class character of the parties of system and connected mistakes made in this elections to a lack of this.
Regarding the revolutionaries he stated the following: “As long as this system of exploitation continues, it must create its opposite. The important thing is that the revolutionaries touch the masses at this point and catch the wishes and aspirations of the masses. This is the missing point. As long as the oppression continues, the struggle of the people will continue”.
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