Turkey
Selahattin Demirtas delivering a speech in Istanbul during a rally on June 5, 2016. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The co-chairs of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party on Sunday visited several jailed colleagues, including prominent politician Selahattin Demirtas, noting that they contribute to the ongoing peace process between Ankara and Kurdish insurgents.
Tuncer Bakirhan and Tulay Hatimogullari, co-leaders of Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), told journalists that they visited Demirtas in Istanbul’s Edirne prison. They also visited Selcuk Mizrakli, sacked mayor of Diyarbakir (Amed).
Demirtas, a charismatic politician who played a role in the short-lived peace process between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a decade ago, has been jailed since 2016 on charges related to the PKK. He endorses the latest peace talks between Ankara and the PKK.
“They send their warm greetings to all of Turkish society. They conveyed their heartfelt greetings and love to everyone who asks about them. Their health conditions were extremely good. Their morale is quite high, and their hopes for peace are also extremely high,” Hatimogullari said.
Despite a ruling by the It is overseen by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) demanding Demirtas’ release, the Kurdish politician remains in jail. Hatimogullari said the continuation of his jailment is a violation of existing laws of the country.
“Turkey is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights. As a party country, not implementing ECtHR decisions means not recognizing international law.”
The co-chairs are set to meet Figen Yuksekdag as well. She and Demirtas were the co-leaders of the Peoples’ Protection Party (HDP), a sister party of the DEM Party, before their detention in 2016.
Bakirhan told reporters that the jailed politicians “will make great contributions to the peace process.”
PKK and Turkey have publicly been engaged in peace talks for about a year.
The PKK declared a unilateral ceasefire after its founder, Abdullah Ocalan, who has been jailed since 1999, released a message in February calling on the group to end its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state. On July 11, a group of PKK fighters burned their weapons in Jasana Cave in Sulaimani province in a symbolic disarmament as part of the peace process. A Turkish parliamentary commission is now formulating the legal foundations for peace with the PKK.
The DEM Party is the main mediator of the peace process, which Turkish officials see as “terror-free Turkey.’
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