ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtas on Saturday called for an unconditional ceasefire between Turkish government and Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) and asked both to return to the negotiation.
“I want to make a call from Izmir: you need to stop the bloodshed. There is no need for guns in a democratic struggle,” Demirtas said.
“There is no difference between Kurds and Turks, guerrillas and Turkish soldiers.”
He added that the PKK should stop its military activities in the towns and mountains, but also said the Justice and Development Party (AKP) cannot conceal its crimes by arresting Kurdish civilians in the streets.
“We cannot wait for the election results. Kurdish and Turkish mothers are crying,” he said, suggesting that both side should stop fighting immediately.
In reference to the upcoming snap elections, Demirtas said those who want peace and stability will win the vote. Demirtas called on AKP supporters to realize that Turkey can’t be ruled by a single party and a single man.
“The June 7 election was a big victory, but incomplete,” the HDP co-leader said, in reference to the last parliament election that HDP won 13 percent of the votes and will now pose a big challenge to the AKP’s dominance.
Demirtash slammed Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minster Ahmet Davutoglu for not taking any steps in the PKK’s disarmament process.
The snap parliamentary election is scheduled for Novemebr 1 and until then an interim government will be formed to rule the country.
In July, violence erupted again between the PKK and the Turkish military, ending a fragile truce in place for more than two years between Ankara and the PKK.
Turkey responded with a nationwide crackdown, detaining more than 2,500 individuals, and military operations and airstrikes that officials say killed more than 700 PKK members. The PKK has refuted the Turkish death toll and claimed that its fighters have killed scores of Turkish soldiers in the last month.
The latest hostilities shattered a shaky peace process between Ankara and the PKK that was meant to end a three-decade insurgency in which 40,000 people have died.
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