Abdullah Öcalan’s Newroz message from 1997 has been played to a crowd of hundreds of thousands in the Rezan (Baglar) district of Diyarbakır (Amed). The assembled people were able to hear Öcalan’s voice, while viewing his image on a big screen.
The festival ground was decorated with the slogan: ‘Democratic Society for Freedom’. A huge banner emblazoned with the Kurdish leader’s face was paraded around Rezan’s Newroz Park by a group of young people.
The occasion was momentous, as messages with Öcalan’s voice are rarely played at events in Turkey. The occasion reflected the atmosphere of hope for a new era of peace, following years of bloody conflict and repression by the Turkish state. Many of the Newroz messages from the different parts of the Kurdish Freedom Movement have been imbued with this message of hope.
Free Women’s Movement’s (TJA) Sebahat Tuncel addressed the crowd, calling on the Turkish government to “open the roads of democratic politics”. “We want to see President Apo here,” she demanded – amidst thunderous applause and chants of “Bijî Serok Apo” (‘long live leader Öcalan’).
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On 27 February, Öcalan called for the dissolution of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as part of a democratic transformation in Turkey. His historic call has been well received by the freedom movement, but there have only been tentative moves by the Turkish state to progress with a new peace process. On Thursday, PKK Executive Council Member Duran Kalkan said that the PKK would not move toward a congress to discuss dissolution without the freedom of Öcalan first being secured.
Also on Thursday, far-right politician Devlet Bahçeli of the ultra-nationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) called on the PKK to hold its congress on 4 May. Bahçeli has been an unlikely intermediary in brokering the current negotiation process, and visits to Öcalan on the prison island of Imrali. His announcement yesterday is seen as a further overture toward peace.
