Elfazi Toral

 

ISTANBUL - Commenting on the DEM Party delegation's visit to İmralı and the discussions on the solution of the Kurdish issue, DEM Party MP Özgül Saki said: "If we are entering a new period with all social segments, steps must be taken to solve the Kurdish issue in an equal, free and democratic way. Legal guarantees need to be established."

 

A delegation of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) MPs Pervin Buldan and Sırrı Süreyya Önder met with PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan on 28 December. After the meeting, Abdullah Öcalan's 7-point message on the solution of the Kurdish question and the creation of a democratic ground for the peoples of Turkey was shared with the public.  While the discussions on Abdullah Öcalan's message and the solution of the Kurdish problem continue, the attacks of the government also continue.

 

DEM Party MP Özgül Saki and DEM Party Istanbul Provincial Co-Chair Gonca Yangöz made evaluations on the developments.

 

Gonca Yangöz stated that Turkey has been facing poverty for a long time and that poverty has increased along with lawlessness.  Expressing that citizens in Turkey do not feel safe, Gonca Yangöz said, "No one feels safe in terms of life. Neither in education nor in health. Workers and labourers have no security for the future. It is possible to say that social collapse has begun. 

 

The government is also making efforts to take our resistance away from us. We know such processes very well.  While we are on the verge of complete problems and extinction, while drawing a portrait of hopelessness, if we can evolve it into a solution and good with the process experienced here, we can accept it as the beginning of hopeful days. It is a challenging process in every respect. 

 

On the one hand, while this government is making speeches about the solution, on the other hand, it continues to appoint trustees. It attacks Rojava and continues other dirty war policies in Syrian territory."

 

‘Sincere and transparent steps must be taken’

 

Gonca Yangöz said, "The hand extended on the Kurdish issue is valuable, but what it does is even more valuable’ and added that if the steps taken on the Kurdish issue progress in a positive and sincere manner, it can be solved through negotiations." Stating that the steps taken regarding the process should be transparent as well as sincere, Gonca Yangöz said: "The government sees the Kurdish problem outside the territory of Turkey.  They act as if the Kurdish problem does not exist. But the Kurdish problem is the reason for all the pressure on us. Therefore, when we say solution, we are talking about the solution of all peoples, especially the Kurdish people. I am in favour of all peoples living together in a common life with their own identities and their own existence. 

 

For this reason, we evaluate every step taken and it is valuable for us. Whether we find it sincere or not is related to the progress of the process. If journalists are still being slaughtered, even the funerals are not allowed to come, if arrests, pressure and persecution are still increasing in prisons, there is no chance to talk about good intentions here. But we do not have the problem of closing all doors completely. Even in the smallest gap opened, we want to talk about peace, negotiate peace and reach the goal."

 

The gain of the Kurdish movement!

 

Emphasising that the AKP government is trying to implement colonialist policies in Syria, Özgül Saki stated that the autonomous administration of Northern and Eastern Syria is seen as a threat.  Özgül Saki noted that Tayyip Erdoğan is following a path that prevents the peoples from living equally and freely and drew attention to the developments in the Middle East and the Rojava Revolution, the struggle of the Kurdish movement for 40 years.

 

 "The AKP government dreams of continuing its existence in Syria together with the jihadist gangs there," said Özgül Saki, "But all their games were spoilt. The period that started on 1 October with the handshake showed us this. The struggle of the Kurdish movement is a point brought by revolutionaries who struggle for the free and equal rights of the peoples. First of all, the state has said this with its own mouth about its policies of denial and annihilation.  And at the same time, Devlet Bahçeli's words ‘Let Öcalan come and speak in the parliament’ are the achievement of one struggle and an indication of how desperate the AKP-MHP government is."

 

‘We must fight to create the conditions for democracy’

 

Özgül Saki shared that women played one of the most important roles in bringing this process to this point and emphasised that women have been struggling for peace for years. Özgül Saki concluded her speech as follows:  "When the government tries to open a new space under these conditions, it takes steps to alleviate, not solve, this problem it created. If we are entering a new period with all social segments, steps must be taken to solve the Kurdish issue in an equal, free and democratic way. Legal guarantees need to be established. It imposes serious responsibilities and duties on labourers, the oppressed and women to show what kind of life they can achieve when there is an environment of peace. The meaning of the new period is both peace in the Middle East and the start of the democratisation process in a democratic environment in Turkey. We have to struggle to create the conditions for a transition from an antidemocratic system of government to a parliamentary democracy."