Main demand of peace process is ‘liberation’ of PKK leader Öcalan, BDP says
DİYARBAKIR / AĞRI
The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) staged a peaceful march through Istanbul's İstiklal Avenue to protest the killing of a demonstrator by the security forces in the southeastern Diyarbakır province June 28. BDP deputies Sırrı Süreyya Önder (R) and Sabahat Tuncel also participated in the march. AA photo
The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has called on the Turkish government to take a step forward and defined the “liberation of the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan” as the main demand in a recently released program consisting of the actions that the party will take in the second phase of the peace process on the Kurdish issue.The BDP has vowed to perform more “democratic and civilian protests than ever,” throughout this July, including marches, sit-ins and commemoration ceremonies to voice their demand for the release of Öcalan who is currently serving an aggravated life sentence on İmralı Island.
The BDP has announced a list of demands including the release of ill ‘captives,’ a halt to patrols, dam and hydroelectric power plant (HES) constructions, the lowering of the election threshold and the right to instruction in native language.
A series of protests will be staged in Istanbul, Ankara and, more intensively, in a number of southeastern provinces of Turkey highly populated by Kurds, according to the BDP statement.
One person was killed June 28 after a clash with security forces as a group of villagers tried to prevent the construction of a gendarmerie facility in Diyarbakır’s Lice province.
We won’t give up our claim, BDP deputy says
Meanwhile, a Van deputy of the BDP, Özdal Üçer, reiterated that they would not give up their claims as long as Öcalan was not liberated, during a local cultural festival in the eastern province of Ağrı.
Slamming the police intervention during the Lice clashes, Üçer called for an uprising in every city and district until Öcalan’s liberation.
