Two more Kurdish politicians end exile

ANKARA

Prominent Kurdish politician Yaşar Kaya cries after arriving in Turkey after decades in exile. AA Photo

Two more Kurdish politicians returned to Turkey ending their decades-long exile.

Şerafettin Kaya and Yusuf Sedat Bucak, who have been outside of Turkey for 35 and 22 years, respectively, arrived in Turkey from Germany April 28, after receiving a guarantee from the state to not be arrested.

The two politicians are facing charges of forming and leading an armed organization, along with 29 other people.

Kaya and Bucak followed Yaşar Kaya, the founder of the now-defunct Democracy Party (DEP), who returned to Ankara on April 17 after living in self-exile in Germany for more than two decades as a political refugee. Kaya’s return was dubbed as a show of support for the government-led peace process.

On March 6, the Ankara 11th Heavy Penal Court issued non-arrest assurances to exiles Kaya, Yusuf Serhat Bucak and Şerafettin Kaya if they returned to the country within three months, in consideration of their age and health situation.

The peace process is aimed at ending the three-decade-long conflict between Turkey’s security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in order to hopefully pave the way for the resolution of the decades-long Kurdish issue.