NORTH KURDISTAN (TURKEY) SABRI OK: The AKP will be the loser

ANF – Behdinan 03.11.2013 – Speaking to ANF about the democratic resolution process Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan initiated on 21 March 2013, KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council member Sabri Ok said that this process has been led by significant unilateral steps by the Kurdish side, such as the ceasefire and the guerrillas displacement into South Kurdistan, but no single step from the Turkish state and government’s side.

Ok remarked that the Turkish state and government have also ignored the Wise People’s reports that highlighted proposals for the provision of mother tongue education, improvement of leader Öcalan’s conditions and his freedom.

Ok stressed that the government has done nothing within this process except for engaging in demagoguery, misguiding the people and creating an expectation for the advancement of the peace process through allegations that the it progressed without any problems. Ok also criticized the government for not going beyond dialogue with the Kurdish leader,  ignoring his call for the advancement of the process to negotiations, and making the process meaningless by unveiling a so-called democratisation package that was aimed at nothing but gaining time until the elections to take place next year.

Reminding of the government’s intervention and threats against the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) delegation paying visits to Öcalan on İmralı island, Ok said this attitude disregarded the will of the Kurdish people and the efforts of the Kurdish leader and brought the process to an end in practice. According to Ok, the government has thus proved itself to have no intention or project for a solution to the Kurdish question.

KCK Executive Council member remarked that the AKP government has intended to sacrifice the democratic resolution process to its electoral policies and followed a greatly irresponsible and dangerous policy in response to the serious attitude of the Kurdish leader, and thus paved the way for the re-eruption of the conflict that will make the peoples of Turkey pay great prices. Ok underlined that it meant nothing but deceiving peoples to talk about a resolution process without taking any steps for negotiations.

Referring to the proposals Öcalan has highlighted for the process to overcome the deadlock caused by the AKP government, Ok said the government needed to take the steps in order for the initiation of a negotiation process, and warned that “the process which is already facing a deadlock today will in this case either advance in a new format or lead up to a conflict environment”. Ok underlined that “Considering the fact that the Kurdish people and the Kurdish liberation movement will not give up the struggle until they attain a free and democratic life, it will be only the AKP itself that will lose”.