The 6–8 October events like a film of horror and betrayal, through the screen of the 3rd Siirt Short Film Festival

The third Siirt International Film Festival took place despite the conditions of the pandemic, with the requirements of those conditions fulfilled and the necessary social distancing rules observed. Held in these days when the pistachio harvest, which in recent years has begun to carry serious weight in Siirt's economy, has been completed and is now being processed and prepared for the market, the Festival is beginning to become a routine of Siirt's annual activities or life. It has turned into an eagerly awaited event not only for Siirt but for those in Turkey or in international circles who produce in the field of short film.

This year, among the Festival's 320 participants, there are many more international participants than in previous years. Participants from Syria, Iran, Egypt and Kyrgyzstan add a distinct color to the competition with their short films while putting to work art's language of communication that transcends nations.

The Festival does not fall on the same days every year. The first was held in May and the second in November; the date chosen for the Festival this year may be a coincidence, but these are exactly the days that coincide with the anniversary of the 6-8 October terror inflicted on Turkey six years ago under the pretext of Kobani. During the Film Festival, what took place in those days, before and after, kept passing before my eyes like a film strip.

The unimaginable savagery of what happened that day, the tragic images and stories of moving leagues away from humanity, the savage, merciless killing of Yasin Börü and his friends, the inhuman feelings and acts displayed over their corpses. And of course there is also the dimension of issues that were attempted to be made instruments of the insidious games played on Turkey. Are the six years that have passed since that brutality, those inhuman acts, enough time to forget them, to forget the treacheries within those events, the crimes against humanity, the monstrosities caused by vomited hatred and rancor, the cruelty and the victimhood that this vomit produced?

Those who criticize the fact that a new indictment has been prepared on this matter six years later, are they aware of what they want? Do they want the perpetrators to get away with 53 murders, with crimes against humanity, with plunging a dagger of treachery out of nowhere into Turkey's independence and future?

The dimensions of the game played on Turkey that day became somewhat clearer afterward. What was being attempted with those acts became somewhat clearer in all its dimensions. Of course, even if no dimension of it had come to light, the violence caused by those masses, provoked solely by the open call of the HDP Central Decision and Executive Board, has in itself a clear account to be settled. This account has not been seen to this day. All of Turkey witnessed in horror the manner in which sixteen-year-old Yasin Börü and his friends were killed. It was very clear that what incited those criminals, those who had flown out of their humanity, to that act of villainy was the call of the HDP MKYK.

Having personally witnessed the events that day in Batman and Siirt, in a television program I joined that evening I had said that, given the courage this insolence found in the resolution process, the resolution process had in fact become practically meaningless and had ended. The PKK and the HDP had seen the resolution process as a weakness of the state and had been greedy to make the fullest use of the opportunity they thought it gave them. The only solution that could be applied against such a structure could be nothing other than fighting them in the most effective way, as is done today. In fact, this organizational structure could not have been in a position to speak on behalf of Kurds. What brought them to this position was nothing other than their being treated as interlocutors by the state in the resolution process.

The account of that violence which caused the deaths of 53 people, the injury of hundreds and the devastation of cities, and of the call that caused it, must be demanded even fifty years later. Perhaps each person involved in every crime committed in those events has been tried one by one. But the real perpetrators of this affair, those who pressed the button, those who incited and instigated, in my opinion, have not been properly touched until now. Late is better than never, but demanding that the case be abandoned because it has become late is an absurdity that defies reason.

Having the third Siirt short film festival coincide with the very anniversary of the 6-8 October events is, even from this angle alone, truly meaningful. Siirt, which six years ago a rabid fascist organization turned into a field of nightmare, has now turned into a festival ground with the enthusiastic participation of the people. On 6-8 October, they had children of that age burn down the Siirt Provincial Public Library, the road to which I had worn down to read books from the age of 8, with the Molotov cocktails they put in their hands. They were poisoning those children by giving them, in that state, the feeling of being the hero of an action film.

In the squares where that library was burned, the beauties and subtleties of art are now being displayed.

The festival, organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism General Directorate of Cinema, under the presidency of Baran Meydan, one of the most dynamic and likable organizers I know, and the direction of Şeyda Canan, and supported by the Siirt Governorship, began with short film screenings. Throughout the festival, film screenings were organized, in the Traveling Cinema TIR with social distancing rules observed, in the center of Siirt and in the districts of Şirvan, Pervari, Baykan, Tillo and Kurtalan, for disadvantaged groups (children, the elderly, the disabled) and healthcare workers.

The finale of the film festival took place in Eruh, with the participation of Deputy Minister of Culture Misbah Demircan and Siirt Governor Osman Hacıbektaşoğlu, hosted by Eruh Mayor Cevher Çiftçi. Eruh, that is, the district where the terrorist organization carried out its first action on 14 August 1984.

The Jury, chaired by Şükrü Avşar, deemed Yılmaz Özdil's film "Barê Giran (Heavy Load)" worthy of the first prize this year; Orhan Umut Gökçek's "Son (The End)" the second prize; and Bahadır Kapır and Ferhat Zengin's "Büyülü Fener Bekçileri (Keepers of the Magic Lantern)" the third. While the Jury Special Prize was received from Iran by Parisa Sedaei-Azar and Ramin Farzaneh with their film "Salmandan (The Elderly)," the Siirt İbrahim Hakkı Hz. Special Prize was received from Egypt by Ahmed Aboulfotouh with his film "Pens Against Bullets."

On this occasion I congratulate everyone who contributed and put in effort to bring the third festival to a successful conclusion.