BDP leader to meet State Department’s Nuland in Washington

ANKARA

A senior State Department official and Turkey’s ambassador in Washington D.C. are among the figures with whom Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş will hold talks while visiting the U.S. capital.

Demirtaş, accompanied by the party’s deputy chair in charge of external relations, Nazmi Gür, were scheduled to depart for Washington as of Oct. 27, according to a press release by the party headquarters.

Both Demirtaş and Gür will deliver speeches at Washington’s National Press Club on Oct. 28 at a meeting organized by the BDP’s Representative Office in Washington, with the party expecting the attendance of many U.S. politicians, journalists and academics.

Through Oct. 29-30, Demirtaş and Gür, accompanied by the BDP’s representative in Washington, Mehmet Yüksel, will hold meetings with U.S. government officials including Victoria Nuland, the assistant secretary for the State Department’s Bureau of European Affairs, the BDP announced in the press release.

“The BDP delegation will also visit Turkish Ambassador to the U.S. Namık Tan,” it added, noting that the delegation would also proceed to San Francisco and Los Angeles for gatherings with people at meetings to be hosted by Kurdish civil society organizations.

Demirtaş and Gür are scheduled to return to Turkey on Nov. 4.