The work of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) delegation, which met with PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan on 28 December 2024 and 22 January, continues. The DEM Party İmralı Delegation will visit the Federated Kurdistan Region next weekend. The delegation including Pervin Buldan and Sırrı Süreyya Önder, members of the İmralı Delegation, and DBP Co-chair Keskin Bayındır will meet with KDP Chair Massoud Barzani and President Nechirvan Barzani in Hewlêr (Erbil) on 16 February. On 17 February, the delegation will meet wiht YNK Leader Bafil Talabani, Kubat Talabani and YNK officials in Suleymaniyah. 

 

During the visits, the details of the talks held in İmralı will be shared and the opinions, suggestions and thoughts of those concerned regarding the process will be received. Immediately afterwards, the content of the talks will be conveyed to Abdullah Öcalan. Öcalan is expected to make a historic call for the solution of the Kurdish issue and the democratisation of Turkey.

 

Parliamentary Deputy Speaker and DEM Party MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who is part of the İmralı Delegation, spoke to Mezopotamya Agency (MA) about the ongoing process under the shadow of trustees, detentions, arrests and military operations.

 

Stating that the government calls for brotherhood on the one hand and the trustee policy and operations on the other, Önder said that this situation has led to serious doubts about the development of the process. Önder said, "It raises the question of whether or not there is a clear or unified will, especially at the level of the state and the administration. However, and without legitimising these negativities, we have to keep in mind that negativities can be experienced in conflict resolution until the final stage. I should also point out that we should not turn negativities into certain knowledge into pleasure. If we do this, we will only add to the existing suffering. Here politics takes the form of talking again and we will not achieve anything."

 

'THE MAIN THING IS WHAT OCALAN WILL SAY'

 

Stating that it will not be possible for everything to change in an instant, Önder said, "I think we need to understand Mr Öcalan's attitude correctly. We are talking about the possibility of a solution to a very painful, time-consuming and corrosive problem for society and its dynamics. It cannot be expected that everyone and everything will cange from one day to the next. There is no room for excessive expectations or excessive pessimism in this period. We saw Mr Öcalan exteremly hopeful and enthusiastic. Because he is striving for the realisation of the targeted possibility of peacei he aimst to put an end to the negativity and he embraces the idea that this process will make everyone live. The duty of both society and us, the labourers of peace, is to build the garden of peace where it is envisaged."

 

Önder stressed that today's talks should not be compared with the solution process that took place in 2013-2015 and added that they are eagerly waiting for Öcalan's call. Önder said, "We can talk about many things, we can foresee many things, but the main thing is what he (Öcalan) will say. I am of the opinion that a possible call will have many dimensions, not just one meaning. The emphasis and call for democratic politics can of course be striking. But we can also expect emphasis on the legal, cultural and social dimensions of the democratic solution of the Kurdish issue, and above all, it is important to open channels of communication. Society is blocked. There is a considerable mass of people who do not come face to face, who cannot talk, who do not discuss, who clash with themselves but bill it to someone else. One is allergic to the other and I think Öcalan will break this allergy."

 

Emphasising that the recent developments in the Middle East have an important place in the solution process, Önder stated that there will no longer be a Middle East like before and added, "Mr Öcalan considered the dissolution of Syria as the dissolution of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement was based on the interests of Britain, France and Russia; the Kurds were to be under Russian domination in the east and French domination in the southeast. We can say that Mr Öcalan's peace-orientated outburst, in response to this state of confusion, proposes a real communitarian project developed by the desire of peoples and communities to live together."

 

Önder added, "We observe that Öcalan places security alongside equality and freedom. Therefore, I think that the first goal will be to end the state of conflict. Mr Öcalan considers it important that Syria's territorial and state integrity and Kurdish participation in this integrity on the basis of democracy are important. There cannot be a state within a state and, conversely, the Kurds there cannot be expected to melt into Arab nationalism. Again, he himself will express the most accurate, we can say that he has an approach that prioritises staying away from conflict, paying attention to Turkey's sensitivities, based on democracy and the development of democratic institutions.+

 

IMPORTANCE FREEDOM OF OCALAN

 

Stating that a mental change and transformation must take place fo a fraternal life, Önder stressed: "First of all, a political will that embraces this proces and expresses the will for a solution must come to flesh and bones. There is a need to develop democratic governance, the language of democratic reconciliation, cultural freedoms and a democratic legal practice as a whole. Of course, it would not be realistic to expect all these changes from the state. However, it is expected that the state and the government will not limit the democratic political ground for the search and discussion fo solutions to these problems, but on the contrary encourage them. If the process progresses successfully, we will have a long road ahead of us, for which we will have to make efforts together. However, the most important thing is the idea that this new path will be travelled with the apparatus and methods of democratic politics."

 

Pointing to the isolation imposed on Abdullah Öcalan reveals Öcalan's position as the focus of the Kurdish issue, "This reality also shows the way to a healthy approach towards him; the realities of life also express this. The main goal of the isolation was to make this focus and possibility unspeakable. Now that calls have been made directly by the leaders of the People's Alliance, the isolation system has become meaningless. Trying to maintain it would mean turning the process in the opposite direction. Therefore, the İmralı Prison system must be abolished with this process," Önder said.  

 

"We do not know whether there is a preparation for lifting the isolation on Abdullah Öcalan," said Önder and added, "His free and equal interlocutor is very important for the salvation of the process. It must be activated quickly and under healthy conditions. Mr Öcalan also knows that there is a basis for this. In the pas, when Özal wanted to start talks, he passed the Conditional Discount Law. When Erbakan contacted Mr Öcalan should come and make a call in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Of course, there are concrete reasons for this demand. Is it conceivable that such a complicated issue can be resolved with a single call? If Öcalan is really expected to play his role, there must be working, communication and access to informatin conditions in which he can hold the necessary talks and discussions. In similar conflict resolutions in the world, free work and calls are not expected to be made without changing the conditions of imprisonment. Isolation is not only a prison practice. The fulfilment of Öcalan's call is at least as important as isolation."

 

MA / Mehmet Aslan