ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, accused Ankara of suppressing Kurds and inflating tensions in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast. He urged consensus to end rivalries, and called for the drafting of a new constitution that would grant equal rights to all Turkish citizens. "Through killing, torturing, arresting and deforming dead bodies (of civilians) they cannot draft a new constitution for Turkey," said Demirtas, referring to Turkish authorities during a party news conference in Ankara. He said that political parties must find formulas to resolve problems. "We should step up our efforts in the political system to resolve each other's shortcomings," Demirtas said. "The constitution is not a commodity you sell and buy. Rather, it contains the social justice through which you must provide people's rights." He accused Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of fighting all minority groups in the region. "AKP is not fighting the Kurds alone," he said. "There must be an end to the mass killing of people in Turkey," he urged. The Kurdish leader vowed that the HDP will "continue to develop." He said that, “Those who work within our party voluntarily should not fear the aggressive acts and raids of police, but back one other." Demirtas explained that the HDP's political goal is to save "the Kurdish nation from all the crises” created by Turkish authorities. "Kurds do not have hostility with Turks in Turkey," he stressed. In parts of the speech, Demirtas mentioned the possibility of autonomy for Turkey’s Kurds, whose population is estimated at 15 million. He mentioned that, not long ago, "we talked about autonomy and they (Turkish authorities) blew up inside," and "accused us of being separatist, just because we had used the words Kurd and Kurdistan." He continued: "They thought we would divide the south and southeastern parts from Turkey." On that pretext "they constantly massacre Kurds, counting them as their enemies." He said Turkey’s Kurds “don't seek separation, since we have the notion of co-existence in this country," and urged the government to “silence the bullets and reach a consensus." Recent reports indicate that ongoing clashes between the Turkish army and residents of Turkey's southeastern Kurdish cities have displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and led to the deaths of hundreds, The Turkish army declared a series of military curfews in several neighborhoods of the Kurdish district of Sur in Turkey’s Diyarbakir province in early December. Since then, clashes have been underway, with dozens of civilians and policemen reportedly killed and wounded. Turkish media reports say that more than 100 people are believed to have been killed and 100,000 others displaced since late July, when Ankara and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) resumed fighting, shattering a fragile peace process that was meant to end a three-decade war in which 40,000 people have died.
