BDP demands changes to jailed PKK leader’s conditions for peace process’ future

ANKARA

BDP Deputy Chair İdris Baluken speaks in a press conference in Parliament. AA Photo

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has noted the necessity of ameliorating the conditions of jailed outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan for the sake of the peace process, urging the government to take immediate action.

“The position of Öcalan is extremely important for the process to proceed. For the democratic peace process, which is experiencing a serious blockage, the government must take serious steps as soon as possible to swiftly change the current conditions of Öcalan,” BDP Deputy Chair İdris Baluken said in a press conference in Parliament on Oct. 9.

Baluken also noted that the current deadlock in the peace process, aimed at resolving the Kurdish issue by ending the three-decade-long conflict between security forces and the PKK, stems from the government’s preference for taking a political stance that is based on current political conjecture and is “pragmatic and opportunist.”

“Conditions for Öcalan, starting with health and safety, must be immediately provided to connect him with the outside world,” Baluken said, while noting that Öcalan’s current conditions were inconsistent with international law and the treaties to which Turkey is a party.

“The [participation] of Öcalan and his political mission is extremely important and a historical chance for our peoples both in solving the Kurdish problem in Turkey and ending the war in the Middle East with peace,” Baluken said.

When asked about the abolition of obligatory student oaths in primary schools, Baluken deemed it a late-yet-welcome regulation against a monolithic mentality imposing Turkishness on a heterogeneous society.