ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A lawmaker from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party said on Sunday that the Kurdish issue is not limited to the laying down of arms by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) amid renewed peace process talks between Turkey and the Kurds.
“This is a hundred-year-old issue... it is not trivial. Today, Turkey says that weapons must be laid down [by the PKK]. This issue has nothing to do with laying weapons down. Why did our people take up arms?” Huseyin Olan, a Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker, told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan, adding that the Turkish state should resolve the concerns that led the PKK members to take up arms.
The DEM Party is mediating talks between the Turkish state and the PKK in a bid to end hostilities. Details of the process are not clear but the pro-Kurdish party’s officials have said it aims to bring peace to the country.
“This is an important process… It is very difficult to follow it as it requires one to be sensible and careful. Some unwanted things could happen during the process too. We should not allow such things [to take place], such as provocations,” Olan said, adding that this is the “last chance” for Kurds in Turkey to achieve peace.
“We have to seize the opportunity well because Kurds have suffered too much oppression, deaths, and imprisonment. We hope to end all this so that Kurds achieve a permanent and dignified peace,” he noted, stressing that this could pave the way for Kurds to enjoy their cultural rights.
A DEM Party delegation has visited jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan twice in recent weeks. They have also held meetings with all political parties that have representatives in the parliament.
The pro-Kurdish party on Sunday kicked off a series of rallies, starting with Istanbul’s Esenyurt. They are also expected to hold crowded rallies in Ankara and Diyarbakir (Amed).
Olan said that such rallies could continue until February 20.
Speaking at the Esenyurt rally, DEM Party co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari stated Ocalan has said that they should talk about peace in the three major cities.
“The message coming from Imrali is very clear, Turkey must democratize. Iran must democratize. On the contrary, everyone sees what is happening in the region. And Ocalan says that Turkey must establish internal peace with its own people and internal will,” she was cited by a party statement as saying during the rally.
Olan highlighted that the public is requesting more transparency from the talks and that they will make a report for the people to be more informed on what is happening while also receiving the opinion of everyone on the matter in Turkey, not just the Kurds.
Turkish officials claim that the DEM Party is the political wing of the PKK, but the party has denied any ties with the armed group.
Last week, Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli, who is the mastermind of the latest peace talks, said that the PKK must be dissolved “without any conditions.”
Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now calls for autonomy. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned last month that if the PKK fails to heed Ankara’s demand, Turkey has “the strength, means, and determination to eradicate the separatist organization, as we have with all terrorist structures in the region, down to its last militant.”
