Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) General Assembly Member and Peoples' Equality and Democratic Party (DEM Party) MP Cengiz Çiçek evaluated the "1 million signatures for peace" campaign initiated by the HDK after the 7-article message of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı was made public. 

 

Emphasising that the developments in Turkey and the Middle East are the Kurdish issue, war or the peace option in which the peoples' struggle for coexistence develops, Çiçek said that the campaign was initiated due to this situation. Stating that the process that started with the genocidal attacks on Palestine has turned the balances in Turkey and the Middle East upside down, Çiçek emphasised that they started the campaign by reading this whole process and said, "Our goal with the 1 million signature campaign is to start a process through criticism of the critical process, not through hollow liberal peace discourses that are not where they should be and not where they should be."

 

Stating that peace is the raison d'être of HDK, Çiçek said, "In other words, the socialisation of politics, the socialisation of peace politics in the context of the politicisation of society. One of our main goals with this signature campaign is to organise and take a stance against the divide and rule policy of the state power or the governments in Turkey and Kurdistan, against the policy of divide and rule, against the honourable peace of the peoples and to organise it."

 

Stating that the aim is not only 1 million signatures, but also to strengthen the ground for peace, Çiçek emphasised that they also aim to change some things that are wrong and insufficient with the campaign and said, "One of them is this: It is to enable the organised struggle of the peoples against the tendencies and moves of the system to intervene in the process from a point that sees its own inadequacies. On this basis, the signature campaign will run on two basic lines. First, this signature campaign will be a struggle for organisation. Our goal is to enter into an organisation attack and an organisation move that reaches millions of people. It is a campaign that will be mobilised not only by the HDK administrations, but also by all the components of the HDK and all the administrators of the DEM Party, which is the party of the HDK."

 

 

'WE INVITE EVERYONE TO BE THE SUBJECT OF THE WORK'

 

Stating that they will hold public meetings, workplace visits, neighbourhood, village and home visits with the campaign, Çiçek said, "We will carry out a work that will organise the idea of peace not only in terms of signatures, but also on the social side. At this point, we want to evaluate and contextualise it as an organising move that will narrow the space of the state and expand the space of society, peace and freedoms. On this occasion, we invite everyone, especially our party and our components, the individuals who are walking the road with us and who have decided on the Third Way, and everyone who wants peace to be the subject of this work."

 

Noting that they see the peace campaign as a solution against the concept of war, Çiçek said that they see the campaign as a proposal for the democratic future of the peoples of Turkey, as a solution to the concept of war in the Middle East, and as a work that centres on and supports a democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue.

 

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

 

Emphasising that the Kurdish demand for peace is not a demand to covet the rights of other peoples, but on the contrary a demand for the protection and exercise of the rights of all peoples, Çiçek said that due to the state of war, the Persian, Arab and Turkish peoples, with whom the Kurds live together, are also unable to exercise their rights.

 

Pointing to past experiences in the developments in the context of the Kurdish issue, Çiçek said, "For this reason, to say something clear to all political circles, the interlocutors of the process, individuals, personalities and structures, not only the Kurdish people need a democratic republic. At the end of the century, all the peoples, communities, beliefs, labourers, women, youth, nature defenders, in fact all citizens of this country as a whole must build a democratic republic."

 

Emphasising that peace is not something that can only be achieved by talking and discussing at the table, "Peace, as Mr Öcalan puts it, must be handled with a perspective that also aims at democratic transformation. Peace is transformative, revolutionary, liberating, and in this respect peace means being on the move," Çiçek said. 

 

THE ROLE OF THE OPPOSITION

 

Stating that they attach importance and value to the outcome of the visits made by the İmralı delegation, Çiçek said that one of the main reasons for the failure of the processes carried out is that the opposition parties and the opposition sector remain distant and aloof from the process. Çiçek said, "Keeping a distance from the democratic and social solution of the Kurdish issue, standing at a distance, standing against it or standing negatively does not benefit the parties and circles concerned, nor does it benefit the peoples living in these lands."

 

Stating that it is valuable that the opposition is not against the solution of the Kurdish issue, Çiçek pointed out the importance of the opposition and political circles other than DEM Party to be involved in the process. Calling on the opposition, Çiçek added: "As a labourer of a structure and a subject of struggle such as the HDK and DEM Party, which has founded its raison d'être on the right to peace and freedom, I say: This is an invitation. Let's build our own game ourselves. Let us build our own spaces of freedom and peace ourselves. Let us provide the climate of peace, prosperity and freedom that the peoples of Turkey and Kurdistan deserve with our own organised struggle."

 

MA / Ömer Güngör