Speaker’s Office finds questions on Kurdish workers ‘rude and hurtful’

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"We are faced with a cautionary situation. What Kurdish workers go through is unacceptable. They are massacred, insulted, attacked... These are all unacceptable. In a country where Kurdish workers are subjected to rude attacks, the Speaker's Office finds it rude and hurtful when we talk about it. These are all cautionary documents that will be taken down in history.

"These documents will be considered worthy of being exhibited in museums. They call you rude and hurtful when you talk about the people who were attacked because they are Kurdish..."

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İstanbul MP Ali Kenanoğlu submitted a Parliamentary question about the attacks on Kurdish workers in Turkey's central Anatolian province of Yozgat in late July 2020.

However, the Parliamentary question of the MP has been returned to him by the Parliamentary Speaker's Office on the stated ground that the questions asked by Kenanoğlu were "rude" and "hurtful."

HDP MP Kenanoğlu has protested this decision, saying, "Kurdish workers were subjected to rude and hurtful attacks. The questions of those who talk about this have been found 'rude' and 'hurtful'. The answers given to these Parliamentary questions go down in history as cautionary answers."

CLICK - Kurdish workers attacked in Yozgat province for 'head tax'

Arriving in the district of Çekerek in Turkey's central Anatolian province of Yozgat, workers from Derik in Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin were attacked by a group of people organized by the village heads in the region, who wanted to charge workers a so-called "head tax."

The Sub-Governor's Office of Çekerek stated that "it could not ensure their life safety." Workers had to leave the province for their hometown.

'Omit these questions'

Around these days, Kenanoğlu brought this issue into the Parliamentary agenda by submitting a Parliamentary question and sharing in detail what the Kurdish workers lived through in Yozgat province.

The Parliamentary Speaker's Office responded to this question around two months later. In its response, the Office has indicated that the questions no. 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are "rude" and "hurtful" and returned it to the MP.

He has also been informed that if he omits these questions, his Parliamentary question will be answered by its addressee.

'Rude' and 'hurtful' questions

5- Do you have any solution offers in the face of racist attacks that have been taking place for years and becoming more widespread against the workers who go from Kurdish provinces to western provinces, Çukurova and the Black Sea to work as seasonal agricultural workers?

7- Isn't it a weakness of the state that the life safety of workers who went from one province to another could not be ensured?

8- If the ones who talk about fraternity cannot protect their own citizens, isn't there a problem?

9- What if the situation had been reversed and the workers who went from Yozgat to Mardin to work had been subjected to such an incident, would state officials have displayed the same unresponsiveness and silence?

10- In a place where even the security of citizens cannot be ensured, isn't it possible that the authority of the state is called into question? (EMK/SD)

* Photo: Gazete Karınca