WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT CONDITIONS – BUT LIKE TO MEET ÖCALAN : Karayılan: We should be able to go to Imralı

INTENTIONS : “We support the talks between Öcalan & the Turkish state but we have never intended to have talks with the state. We stand by Öcalan’s statements”.

Murat Karayilan

ANF – News Desk 27.04.2013 – Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council president Murat Karayılan spoke to Turkish journalists who went to Kandil for the press conference KCK held on 25 April on the withdrawal of Kurdish guerrillas from Turkish borders.

According to the report by Şirin Payzın from CNN Türk, Karayılan said that guerrilla forces will withdraw without conditions. According to Payzın, Karayılan said “what we have highlighted for the process of democratization and liberation to begin after the withdrawal are steps we consider necessary to ensure a permanent peace”. Karayılan listed these steps as the amendment of the law on political parties, the election threshold, the anti-terror law, abolition of the village-guard system and liberation of prisoners tried in the KCK case.

KCK Executive Council president repeated KCK’s demand to meet Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan in Imralı Prison, saying, “Considering the fact that we could go to Oslo for meetings earlier, I believe we can go to Imralı as well. The meeting between KCK and Öcalan could be realized by the visit of a delegation from Kandil, and perhaps a delegation consisting of members of the Kurdish women’s movement. These meetings will enable us to tell the process to each level units under our movement in a more proper and healthy way. We support the talks between Öcalan and the Turkish state but we have never intended to have talks with the state. We stand by Öcalan’s statements”.

Karayılan remarked that the organization of a peace conference in Ankara would contribute to gathering the society for a purpose, noting that they demanded democracy in Turkey for not only a solution to the Kurdish question but also for all oppressed circles such as Alevis and other ethnic and religious identities, women, workers and all peoples. We demand peace for a democratic and pluralist Turkey, he added.