İmralı delegation to meet KCK figures in Kandil
DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency
AFP Photo
A group of politicians known as the “İmralı delegation” headed to the Kandil mountains in northern Iraq early May 18 to meet with senior leaders from the outlawed Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), as their repeated demands to meet with the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned in İmralı island, have been rejected since April 5.The İmralı delegation, made of HDP Deputy Parliamentary Group Chairs Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken, Democratic Society Congress (DTK) co-chair Hatip Dicle, along with Ceylan Bağrıyanık, a Liberal Women Congress representative, has applied several times to the Justice Ministry to meet with Öcalan, but their demands received no reply on grounds of a stalemate in the Kurdish peace talks between the Turkish government and the HDP.
HDP Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who joined the delegation in their recent meetings with Öcalan, was not among the delegation that went to Iraq through the Habur crossing on the Turkish-Iraqi border. The delegation arrived at Kandil to discuss the Kurdish peace talks with KCK representatives.
Baluken, commenting on their visit to Kandil, said on his Twitter account earlier May 18 that the delegation’s journey started at dawn and that the visits would bring a great peace.
“We do not care about the AKP’s negligence of the peace talks, but rather the demands of our people. Our people should stay calm that the HDP will guarantee the peace. It should not be forgotten that Kurdish peace talks have come to this point with unilateral efforts and concessions,” he said.
The HDP’s delegation has been denied since April 5 by the Turkish government on their bid to meet with Öcalan as part of the Kurdish peace process that started late 2012 to put an end to the decades-long armed conflict between the Turkish Army and the PKK.
