Demirtas backs PKK disarmament through parliament, not warfare
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Selahattin Demirtas, the imprisoned presidential candidate of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), wants the disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to be led by parliament, not through military means.
Demirtas, who is running for the presidency in the June 24 election, despite his incarceration for alleged terrorism offenses, spoke to Turkish Fox TV in a written interview via his lawyers on Wednesday.
“We have faith in and defend the position that the PKK should give up fighting against Turkey forever through Turkish democracy and resolve the Kurdish issue through a peaceful perspective,” he said.
HDP co-chairs Sezai Temelli and Pervin Buldan appeared on Fox TV on Wednesday night. Demirtas was supposed participate in the program via telephone from prison, but the HDP’s request was denied by the courts.
Demirtas said the peace initiative should be “transparent and fair.” What sets the HDP apart from other parties, he claimed, is that “all other parties have been saying for 40 years: ‘Let’s fight until we kill the last terrorist.’ But we are saying: ‘Let’s convince them to come down from mountains.’”
This position does not make the HDP members of the PKK, “but the owner of a stable, feasible and democratic suggestion,” he added.
The HDP and its presidential candidate have no “organic and organizational” ties with the PKK and they would not hide it if they did, he said.
The PKK is a named terrorist organization which has waged a decades-long war against Turkey aimed at achieving rights of self-determination for over 20 million Kurds in the country.
Demirtas, who is running for the presidency in the June 24 election, despite his incarceration for alleged terrorism offenses, spoke to Turkish Fox TV in a written interview via his lawyers on Wednesday.
“We have faith in and defend the position that the PKK should give up fighting against Turkey forever through Turkish democracy and resolve the Kurdish issue through a peaceful perspective,” he said.
HDP co-chairs Sezai Temelli and Pervin Buldan appeared on Fox TV on Wednesday night. Demirtas was supposed participate in the program via telephone from prison, but the HDP’s request was denied by the courts.
Demirtas said the peace initiative should be “transparent and fair.” What sets the HDP apart from other parties, he claimed, is that “all other parties have been saying for 40 years: ‘Let’s fight until we kill the last terrorist.’ But we are saying: ‘Let’s convince them to come down from mountains.’”
This position does not make the HDP members of the PKK, “but the owner of a stable, feasible and democratic suggestion,” he added.
The HDP and its presidential candidate have no “organic and organizational” ties with the PKK and they would not hide it if they did, he said.
The PKK is a named terrorist organization which has waged a decades-long war against Turkey aimed at achieving rights of self-determination for over 20 million Kurds in the country.