Gülistan Azak

 

ADIYAMAN - Koçali Dam will put five Alevis’ villages underwater in Adıyaman province. “They tried to kill us, the Kurds and the Alevis, by building mine in the village but they couldn’t. Now they are trying to kill us with dam,” said the villagers.

 

The construction of Koçali Dam, 40 km away from Adıyaman city center continues. Çatalağaç, Doğanlı, Gökçay, Bağlıca and Ağaçkonak villages, where Kurdish Alevis live, will be underwater once the dam is completed. Since 2014, the villagers have organized protests and issued press statements to state that they don’t want the dam to be built.  

 

“We made a living by being engaged in farming or growing tobacco. But we have become unemployed due to  the ban on the tobacco,” said Zeynep Ergül (56) and underlined that the building of the dam, particularly in the villages of Kurdish Alevis is a the state’s traditional ongoing for years.

 

‘My daughter joined the PKK due to the state’s oppression’

 

Noting that their village was raided in 1980s by soldiers because they were Kurdish Alevis, Zeynep said they had faced the true face of the state during that period. Underlining that as the villagers, they were subjected to torture, Zeynep continued to talk as follows;

 

“They forced the men to eat their cut beard and mustache; the women were forced to ride on their husbands’ back until the stream of the village. The villagers from all ages were told “You are Alevis, you are Kurdish” and subjected to torture. My oldest daughter couldn’t stand the torture and oppression and she joined the PKK. Who can now blame my daughter for joining the PKK or who can call her as a terrorist? We are still being threatened with death. For the Alevis, the history repeats itself.”

 

‘No respect to our tombs and deaths’

 

Saying that their tombs and graves will be also underwater by the dam, Fatma Esen (54) added, “The people of the village carry out their struggle against the executioners having no respect to our tombs and deaths. The state starts a war against a small village and the people are defenseless and alone. They tried to kill the people of the village by building a mine in the village but they couldn’t. Now they are trying to kill us with dam. They tell us go from here. But where can we go? We have made a living by being engaged in farming, how can we make a living in the cities? This country’s President wants to bury us alive.”

 

Talking about the increase young and unemployed population in the village, Türkan Yoldaş (47) said, “Asking a marriage condition to get housing loan is to joke with us. Unmarried and unemployed young people live in our village. They say they will not give the girls to have right to property and they impose marriage condition on the boys.”