Final Declaration of the 1st Conference held on April 23-24, 2016, in Wan – North Kurdistan.

On April 23 and 24, 2016, in the city of Wan (Van) the first conference

of the Mesopotamian Ecology Movement (MEM) has been held with the

participation of 100 delegates from the provinces Amed (Diyarbakir),

Dîlok (Gaziantep), Riha (Sanliurfa), Merdîn, Muş, Wan, Elih (Batman),

Siirt, Dersîm and Bedlîs (Bitlis), from Turkey with activists from the

following movements and groups Gaya magazine, Anti Nuclear Platform,

Green Resistance, Green Newspaper, Green and Left Party, Black Sea in

Rebellion, Defense of North Forests, Water Right Campaign, Dersîm-Ovacik

Municipality and with of the German ICOR and the East-Kurdistan group

Green Chiya. Including representatives of the DTK, KJA, HDK and HDP

there were in total 170 people joining the first big gathering of the

MEM since its buildup.

The conference in Wan has been organized in a period of intensive

political struggles by people in Kurdistan for freedom and

self-governance which may change significantly the future of a region,

but demands many victims.

Based on the trinity city-class-state and the method of

dominance-capital accumulation, the capitalist modernity creates a

breathless and unproductive life for the society as well as it faces the

nature with every kind of destruction. On behalf of the existing

hegemonical system the nation-state und its governments disperse the

social-solidary character of the society and imposes unemployment,

poverty, unhealthy nourishment via industrial and GMO’s and the

cultural-social devastation on the people. Huge destructive projects

like the GAP (Southeastern Anatolia Project), Ilisu Dam, Munzur dams,

Green Way, Cerattepe Mining and Kanal Istanbul are developed and

realized with the aim to enable the forests for construction, to

commercialise the waters, commodification of the land, to control nature

and people and promote the consumption of fossil fuels which is nothing

else than the move away and alienation of people to their original

nature and life.

Currently, the ruling regime in Turkey carries out a brutality which is

incomparable in the recent history of Kurdistan and the Middle East and

has a new perfidious dimension. Hundreds of thousands of people from

Sur, Nusaybin, Hezex, Kerboran, Farqin, Şırnak, Gever, Silopi and Cizre

are displaced forcely from their cities which are under a systematic

destruction. While doing so, the world public keeps silent on the

destruction of nature and cities and all massacres.

The denying and monist mentality of the nation-state and the unlimited

profit-competition and domination seeking character of the capitalist

modernity has brought the world into the current grave state. Thats why

social disasters turn into ecological disasters and vice versa. The

society and the humanity has to say stop to this development. If this

situation continues then we will pass over a point from where a

turnabout would be not possible any more. In this sense also the raise

of an ecological resistance is very important.

Despite of the destructive mentality and practice a return is possible.

It is necessary to raise the ecological struggle both against the wars

and the elimination of life areas and our cultural and social values

through destructive and exploitative numerous projects like dams, coal

plants, mining. In this line the ecological struggle has to be done and

spread under the maxim “Lets communalize our land, waters and energy and

setup the democratic free life”. It is the right time to defend the

democratic nation against the nation-state, the communal economy based

on anti-caputalism and anti-monopolism against capitalist fast profit

seeking logic and large industrialism, the organic agriculture,

ecological villages and cities, ecological industry, energy and

technology against agriculture and energy policies imposed by capitalist

modernity.

With the consciousness that the ecological struggle is the touchstone

for the liberation of the whole humanity we are aware that every action

may bring us closer to a free individual and free society. We understand

that our struggle towards reaching our nature and societal truth, which

are the fundamentals of our existence justification, is an important

contribution for the liberation of people and nature in our world. With

a big exitement, which we feel deeply, we take our position in this

struggle.

Our paradigm, the herald of bright ages of the 21st century’s and coming

milleniums, is the one of a radical democratic, communal, ecological,

women libertarian society. In this sense the ecology struggle is beyond

being any struggle but the vital essence of the free life paradigm.

Without ecology the society and without human and nature the ecology can

not exist. Ecology, as the essence and self to milleniums old universal

dialectic of formation, dialectically weaves all processes of entities

connected to each other and like the rings of a chain.

In this sense the struggle against capitalist modernity; is the struggle

to develop democratical, social and liberatarian mindset, the struggle

to become a social subject against the statist – sovereignist mindset.

This can only develop with social entity, with a struggle of freedom,

with a stand against to the system that puts up the

nature-society-individual for the interests of capital-rent and hegemony.

In the Middle East, the history of ecology hasn’t been written like the

history of woman. Like for free woman it is necessary to know the

history of woman, for a ecological society it is necessary to know the

history of ecology. In this sense, by opening up ecology academies, it

is necesseary to include ecological consciousness to the programs of all

social spheres and academic educations as an essential extent. Like

organizing our own assemblies, the responsibility to ensure the

organization of social sphere and institutional studies with ecological

consciousness and sensibility is vital. In relation to democratic and

ecologic society’s construction, important things been agreed upon in

our conference. At the same time with the decisions, that have been

taken in our conference, an intellectual, organisational and operational

contribution has been aimed for the global ecological movements. Some of

the decisions that have been taken are:

– To establish a strategic intellectual, organizational and operational

coordination with national and international ecology movements in order

to enhance common discussions and actions against ecological destruction

and exploitation.

– To struggle against the mental, physical and ideological destructions

in vital things for life such as energy, water, forests, soil,

urbanisation, agriculture-seed, technology; based on the approved

policies of the Mesopotamian Ecology Movement at the conference to rise

the struggle within the aimed construction of a new life.

– To fight against the system that demolishes the urban settlements,

that burns the forests in Kurdistan; to treat publically the ecological

devastation experienced in Kurdistan and to map the devastations within

the war.

– To plan actions with other ecology movements against the destruction

of cities in Kurdistan; to ensure active participation in solidarity

platforms that have been established in these cities.

– To maintain the struggles protecting the cultural and natural

sites/values that faces extinction such as Hasankeyf, Diyarbakır-Sur,

Munzur Valley, “Gele Goderne” due to energy and security policies in

Kurdistan.

– To develop a Kurdistanesque ecological model.

– To be more and regular present in printed and digital media organs and

to establish ecology academies.

– To carry out the legal struggles in parallel to ongoing actions and

campaigns.

– To expand the own organizational structures in all Kurdistan and

Middle-East.

—

Mezopotamya Ekoloji Hareketi (MEH) /

Mesopotamian Ecology Movement

www.mezopotamyaekolojihareketi.org

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