BDP gets Kandil’s response to Öcalan

ISTANBUL

The armed leadership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), based in the Kandil Mountains of northern Iraq, conveyed its response on April 8 to a letter from the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, over the ongoing efforts to find a solution to the Kurdish issue.

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and BDP Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder went to Kandil to collect Kandil’s response to Öcalan’s most recent letter, according to Fırat news agency, which is known to have close links to the PKK.

Demirtaş said they didn’t know about the contents of the letter, the agency reported yesterday. Demirtaş said that a BDP delegation could pay the fifth visit to İmralı to discuss the most recent developments after Öcalan had received Kandil’s letter.

“We expect Mr. Öcalan to make a decision after these correspondences. Should he happen to make a call, it will become clearer in the next phase. I believe the discussion we held in Kandil has been very efficient for the [the outlawed Kurdish Communities Union] KCK side,” Demirtaş said. “In order to remove the obstacles before the process, the government should be more courageous in terms of using the language of peace and solution and not causing hesitation about the reliable steps it should take. This is what we have observed in Kandil.”