ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s top Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas has invited the Turkish president and prime minister for an open debate, saying direct talks were necessary because the parliament had remained “unproductive.” Demirtas, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, said Monday that a debate was needed with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Speaking in the Turkish parliament, Demirtas strongly criticized the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), accusing it of hypocrisy. He said the party always claims that "the Kurds are our brothers, but in reality they do not even accept even one single Kurdish word to be used in the parliament." Therefore, Demirtas declared, "I invite Erdogan and Davutoglu to a three-way debate to expose who says the reality and who lies." In his speech in parliament, he recalled the killing of Tahir Alci, a Kurdish lawyer in Diyarbakir, saying he was killed 40 days after the justice minister claimed he was a terrorist. Alci, head of the Diyarbakir Lawyers' Syndicate, was among a group of lawyers holding a press conference in early December calling for peace between Turkish security forces and PKK fighters when gunfire broke out. In parts of his speech, Demirtas added that Turkey's parliament is exceedingly inactive. "There is nothing called the Turkish parliament in Turkey and it is the most unproductive organ of the country."
