PKK chief’s demands reasonable: Kurdish MP Türk

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Senior Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk, an independent lawmaker, speaks to reporters about his visit to the PKK’s imprisoned leader Öcalan. DHA photo

In the first clue about the content of a meeting with the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), senior Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk suggested that the PKK leader had made “reasonable demands from the state.”

Türk, co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), along with Ayla Akat Ata, a deputy of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), went on Jan. 3 to İmralı, an island in the Marmara Sea where PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan has been in virtual isolation since his capture in 1999.

“Reasonable proposals that will not force the state; demands that should be fulfilled in every democratic country; demands that are very reasonable,” Türk told Hürriyet Daily News of Öcalan’s requests following a meeting of the BDP’s executive board.

“Efforts are being exerted for the laying down of arms. A sincere effort has been exhumed for having the process run on a democratic ground and for providing an end to bloodshed. I’m hopeful of this process,” Türk said when asked of the validity of reports that suggested laying down arms was not an item in the meeting with Öcalan.

Declining to comment further, Türk said BDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş would make certain assessments during his address to his party’s parliamentary group today.