Actually, we first heard of this concept while flying for a tour of the Southeast Anatolia Project (GAP) in the presidential plane. I think it was fellow journalists Cüneyt Arcayürek and Yavuz Donat who were with me on the plane. Turkey’s then President Süleyman Demirel was replying to our questions on the Kurdish issue, saying: “Gentlemen, note this concept that I am reading and thinking about: ‘Constitutional citizenship.’
To answer this question, first we have to outline these facts: A military operation was conducted to save our troops guarding the Tomb of Süleyman Shah.
We are appalled. We have critiqued all of it; we questioned them. I am referring to the fist fight coming from the Turkish parliament. I had the opportunity to ask Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Çiçek what he thought of it.
There are only three-and-a-half months until the general elections in Turkey: The strategic importance of a city is increasing.
Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş recently said these absolutely true words: “I first became a lawyer to defend the rights of my people against the oppressive state. But that was not enough. So I went into politics. I became a deputy. That was not enough either. So there is only one way out: We must make the state into a democratic system that nobody and no party can make in his or her ‘own’ state. The road to that is a constitution based on freedoms.”
We are entering a painful calendar year in the axis of Syria and Iraq. Kurdish politics and politicians in the region are preparing for international meetings in the coming term. Kurdish forces, having gained U.S. support against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), are making very good use of time.
Kurdish leader Ahmet Türk fears an emotional break, a disengagement of the Kurdish youth. He issued a strong warning the other day:
Doğan News Agency (DHA) correspondent Felat Bozarslan reported this from Kirkuk: “In the Tavuk area of Iraq’s Kirkuk city, three villages that were seized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were attacked by PYD-YPG and Peshmarga forces in the morning hours.
Turkey should support the Kurds against ISIL because we should look at this war from only one axis: Democracy.
