Selahattin Demirtaş'ın Savunması - Onurlu Yaşam Davası

Selahattin Demirtaş's Defense - The Case for a Dignified Life

It should be known that our action, our words and our defense against these activities carried out under the name of this case and trial are not only a call to the present, but in fact a letter written to the future.

The Kurdish people are oppressed, the Turkish people are oppressed. Those who exploit them are murderers. Those who occupy their lands. Those who seize their culture and language are murderers, not us. We only defended the honor of our people, their dignity, their right to eat, their right to live freely on this earth, their right to live as humans in their own lands.

Denying the reality of Kurds and Kurdistan is denying humanity. Denying the language and homeland of any people is denying humanity, it is an attack on humanity’s honor. The Kurdish people have their own history as the Kurdish nation, denying this is denying humanity’s honor. When we accept this, we feel dishonorable. We cannot look each other in the face as Kurds. I cannot look you in the face either.

Through this case, we say to those who want to enslave us, "No, we are free people."