BDP delivers letter amid raid on Kandil

ISTANBUL

(L-R) BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and co-chairs of the DTK, Aysel Tuğluk and Ahmet Türk, speak to reporters before their departure for northern Iraq. DHA photo

The Turkish Air Forces conducted bombing raids on bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kandil mountains, as Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies were delivering the letters of the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan to both the PKK’s urban wing and PKK units in northern Iraq.

BDP executives are expected to hold “a resolution summit” with representatives of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and the PKK, in the northern Iraqi province of Sulaymaniyah. During the meeting, the two outlawed organizations will also make a decision on whether to send a single response letter to Öcalan on behalf of both the KCK and the PKK.

The co-chairs of the Kurdish-umbrella organization, the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk, BDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak, as well as BDP deputies Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Altan Tan met with executives from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaymaniyah, daily Hürriyet reported yesterday. They may now proceed to Arbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

In Istanbul, BDP deputy parliamentary group chair Pervin Buldan departed for Brussels, where she said she would discuss their meeting with Öcalan and his letter with “fellows.” 

Meanwhile, BDP’s İdris Baluken voiced concern over sincerity of the AKP government. “It is worrying that the government is [approving] attacks on the PKK, which is not engaged in any actions at the moment, while also aiming to reach the target of disarmament,” said Baluken.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has condemned the BDP executives. “It’s the evidence of treason that the letters from İmralı [where Öcalan is serving a life sentence] that were initialed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were conveyed by rotten BDP lawmakers to Kandil Mountain. This is where words remain inadequate,” he said in a statement.