BDP launches new rally for PKK leader

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) held a meeting July 14 in Diyarbakır despite the governor’s ban on the meeting. Police barred protestors during the meet. DHA photo

In a fresh effort to re-direct attention to the controversial “democratic autonomy” proposal and the end of the isolation policy currently enacted on the imprisoned head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) will launch a series of rallies in southeastern Anatolia this weekend.

“We have decided to call these rallies ‘freedom rallies.’ They are organized by our local branches. Our lawmakers as well as our co-chairpersons will attend the rallies and will address the people,” Nursel Aydoğan, a BDP deputy responsible for the party’s rallies and other activities, told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

The rallies will stand as calls for the end of the “isolation of Abdullah Öcalan,” leader of the PKK who is serving a life sentence in prison on İmralı İsland in the Marmara Sea, the Daily News has learned. Speakers at the rallies will also renew the party’s calls for the adoption of democratic autonomy, a suggestion that has drawn strong reaction from the government and other political parties.

According to Aydoğan, Gültan Kışanak, a co-chairperson of the BDP, will attend a rally on Aug. 25 in the Siverek province of Şanlıurfa; Ahmet Türk, co-chairperson of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), will speak at a rally in the Kızıltepe province of Mardin, Aysel Tuğluk from the DTK will appear in the Yüksekova province of Hakkari and Şırnak deputy Hasip Kaplan will hold a rally in the Cizre province of Şırnak on Aug. 26.