Öcalan: I may recede from negotiations should the process go like this

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ANF – ISTANBUL 08.10.2013 – Mehmet Öcalan spoke to DİHA (Dicle News Agency) about the details of yesterday’s meeting with his brother, PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Öcalan said the Kurdish leader talked about the ongoing democratic solution process and the approaching local elections. According to his brother, the Kurdish leader said that he would make his thoughts public on October 15 should he be paid the expected visit by the delegations of the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) and the state. Referring to the “democratisation package” unveiled by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 30 September , Öcalan said that; “The package has had no relevance to Kurds since the beginning of its preparation process. It was prepared and announced by the state and the government and it leaves the Kurdish issue out of the scope”.  According to his brother, Öcalan voiced his satisfaction about the ongoing non-conflict environment that has witnessed no deaths on either side, Turkish army and Kurdish guerrillas, but added that the Turkish state and government should smooth the way for the process to advance because -he underlined- it can not progress much with unilateral steps.

“I will convey my thoughts about the process to the BDP and state delegation I expect to meet in the coming weeks. The rest- whether the process will advance or not- goes beyond me for I have not been enabled to do my part within this process. We should have witnessed some developments and my conditions should have been improved by now. Should the state and government fail to pave the way for my further involvement in the process, that would be all and I may recede from negotiations should the process go like this. I do not know who would take part in talks after that time, maybe the BDP and Kandil (KCK) should they agree to continue”, the Kurdish leader said. Also commenting on the approaching local elections, the Kurdish leader put emphasis on the importance of ensuring the domination of public but not elected representatives in the decision making mechanism of local administrations. “Decisions should be done all together, not by mayors or by municipal committees alone. There should be a communal grassroots organization and people should regulate municipalities whose ruling should be based on the co-chair system and public participation”, his brother quoted Öcalan as saying.