What is the authorities afraid of?
Awat Jamal – Journalist and Activist
The arrest of a teacher or civil servant, only because they thought about protesting, is yet another humiliation and unfortunately, now no one raises their voice, as if nothing happened.
Throughout the long life and experience of its people, Slemani has always been a place that doesn’t kneel to oppression, always at the forefront of voicing dissatisfaction. But now look the PUK in Slemani, under the cover of democracy, uses its authority for personal interests, thinking that under the shadow of this created freedom and democracy, it is safe. But they do not know that the power is the people of the city, whom they’ve been forced to silence.
No, truly turning Slemani into Hewlêr is a dangerous stage. By increasing imprisonment and arresting people and yet, you boast about providing democracy and freedom, even though these are just hollow slogans. In reality, you and the KDP seek through manipulation and orchestration to dominate Slemani, Hewlêr, Duhok, and all of Kurdistan.
Since 2013, the people have been taught ten crises. They are either expected to be grateful or told, “wait, we will improve it.” Which people? The people you have disempowered! Perhaps you can continue for a while longer with your lies and self-praise, but the selfish and interest-seekers will die off, and even the youth will reach their limit. Right now, you don’t even have two million votes and at one point, four million stood against you.
Why was the protest not allowed?
They cited “regional security” and “the safety of the people” as reasons, using this as a pretext for Slemani’s security committee to ban the protest. But in truth, it was the fear of the scale, the anger, and the expansion of the protest. The PUK and KDP were scared, the people had gone without salaries for two months, civil servants had quietly boycotted, and the situation was ready for people to rise up against party and government offices. It was a condition that endangered city security and could have led to the collapse of their rule, especially as this coincides with changes in governments across the Middle East, and that process continues.