It is time for significant peace to resolve the Kurdish question in Turkey, declared pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) MP Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit, during a speech addressing the Turkish parliament on Thursday. She highlighted the pivotal role of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan in peace negotiations and urged the Turkish state to engage with him as the primary interlocutor for a democratic, peaceful solution.
Referring to what she termed as an international conspiracy against Öcalan, Koçyiğit noted, “Today is 15 February. Twenty-five years ago, on 15 February 1999, Mr Öcalan was brought to Turkey through an international plot facilitated by global powers. We are well aware that each of these countries involved in this process had a motive and a plan in mind.”
The DEM Party Deputy Group Chairwoman argued that the intent behind the conspiracy was to deepen the Kurdish issue, leaving it unresolved to maximise their interests. “However, this plot was thwarted by Mr. Öcalan’s peace-oriented projects and approach during his 25 years in İmralı prison. We know the primary reason he remains a key figure in the democratic solution to the Kurdish issue today is this. Mr. Öcalan is now 75 years old,” she stated.
Highlighting the historical responsibility, Koçyiğit continued, “Abdullah Öcalan has stated, ‘A week is enough for me to resolve the Kurdish issue’, at least to start addressing the root of the problem. He is the primary and fundamental interlocutor for the state, and recognising him as such is the first step towards embracing and supporting the will for peace. History has entrusted us with a significant responsibility. We must support Mr Öcalan’s will for peace, who has never stepped back on the issue of a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish issue, despite being held in İmralı Island for a quarter of a century.”
“We are aware that the isolation is not limited to İmralı but has spread to all prisons and from there to the entire country, becoming normalised. Yet, we are at a different threshold today because we are in the second century of the republic. We wasted one century, but in the second, we have the opportunity to win as peoples, as faiths, with all the diversity of the people of Turkey; we can open this door together. We are passing through a historical threshold. Both regional developments and the current situation of the country compel us to achieve great peace. We cannot escape this peace; even if it takes a century, we must realise it a century later,” Koçyiğit stated.
Koçyiğit warned of the daily cost of not resolving the issue, “We know that every day this issue remains unresolved, it exacts a toll on the people of Turkey, extracting a price from them. Lives are being lost, the country’s resources are being spent on this cause, and the country is being dragged into a spiral of multiple crises. We cannot turn a blind eye to this issue, ignore it, or turn our backs on it. Today, more than ever, we need to see and heed this growing will for peace.”
“The deadlock in the Kurdish issue is not fate. The solution and negotiation process between 2013-2015 clearly showed us this. I once again state that the will present at that time was correct, that 2013-2015 was an important threshold that benefited the people of Turkey. Drawing from this experience, acknowledging the mistakes made, and compensating for them, it is precisely time to start a new process. I would like to salute the freedom marchers, who have been demonstrating this will, the will for peace, the will to solve the Kurdish issue through democratic means, since 1 February and who are now in Urfa. I call on each member of our Parliament, elected here to represent our people: It is time for significant peace,” Koçyiğit asserted.
Echoing the call for peace, Koçyiğit concluded, “As [the great Kurdish author] Yaşar Kemal said, ‘If the mountains, people, and even death are tired, then the most beautiful poem is peace’. I urge every one of us, every MP, to be the voice of this will for peace, rising from the streets, from the heart of the people, from the prisons. I reiterate the need to lift the isolation, recognise Mr Öcalan’s interlocutorship for a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue, and give a chance to the process.”
