No concrete steps from Turkish government for Kurdish peace, BDP co-chair says

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

The Turkish government has not taken any concrete steps and continues to use the “future tense” about plans regarding the “peace process,” Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş has said.

“This worries us. The esteemed prime minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] still says they will build new military outposts, which means they don’t believe in a lasting peace,” Demirtaş said in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır after returning from northern Iraq’s Arbil, where he attended a “preparatory meeting for the Kurdish National Congress” yesterday.

He said a project or a package must emerge from the government side in the beginning of September.
Demirtaş said the second phase of the peace process cannot be completed otherwise.

“Did the PKK withdraw or not, this debate must end. The real question is how PKK members will return to Turkey,” he said.

The BDP will have an extraordinary general meeting in Istanbul July 28 with Demirtaş’s attendance to discuss the issues.

Kurds will declare where and how they want to live soon

Demirtaş also made comments about the recent developments in Syria and the meeting in Arbil.
He said where and with what status Kurds want to live will be declared to the world after the Kurdish National Congress gathers.

Demirtaş said the first meeting in Arbil was successful in the sense of paving the way for a Kurdish National Congress. The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Masoud Barzani, opened the meeting in Arbil to discuss the date and participants of a planned Kurdish conference, attended by representatives from many Kurdish groups from neighboring countries, including Turkey.

“It was decided to launch a preparation committee. There is no obstacle to a national congress gathering. It has been five or six years since a congress was attempted but for the first time a meeting was held that every movement joined,” Demirtaş said.

Demirtaş also said Kurds had been living under the flags of “other countries,” sometimes autonomously, which created problems for Kurds and for other nations.

“The Kurdish union will comfort the Kurdish population of 40 million, as well as the region,” Demirtaş said.

Recent developments will change the balance of power in the region, according to Demirtaş.

“It will be declared to the world where and with what status Kurds want to live with this congress,” he said.

“Syria is in a swamp now and the whole world is searching for a way out from this, but it fails. Kurds are in a key position, this will be evaluated; Kurds are in a situation that can pull the sides to a dialogue point, the National Congress can trigger the process that will reach peace and a solution in Syria,” he said.