Speaking at a panel discussion in Van on the occasion of International Day of Peace, author Fatma İzol said, “The fact that the chief negotiator is imprisoned leads to inadequate discussion of this issue. Steps must now be taken towards Öcalan’s freedom.”
The Labor and Democracy Platform in Van province organized a panel discussion at the Bar Association conference hall on the occasion of the International Day of Peace on September 1. The event featured writer Fatma İzol, Peace Foundation President Hakan Tahmaz, and Human Rights Foundation of Turkey Secretary General Coşkun Üsterci as speakers.
Referring to Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s February 27 ‘Call for Peace and Democratic Society’, Fatma İzol said, “After 50 years of war, today we need to find answers to three questions: Why should we live together, why should we insist on peace, and why must women be at the center. If we can answer these three questions correctly, we can demonstrate why peace is imperative from a broad perspective.”
Stressing that a democratic republic, education in mother tongue, and fundamental human rights are non-negotiable demands, İzol said, “Women, who paid the highest price, want peace the most. Women’s struggle must be decisive in building peace.”
‘Steps must be taken towards Öcalan’s freedom’
Izol pointed out that Abdullah Öcalan, the architect of the process, must be freed, stating: “For the first time, Kurds and Turks are sitting at the table, and one of the parties is a prisoner. Negotiations only take place when the state sets a date. Mr. Öcalan is a courteous person. He is not concerned with his own freedom; he wants to discuss how we can build peace. He also has a saying: ‘The imprisonment of an individual is the imprisonment of society.’ It is only right that we demand Mr. Öcalan’s freedom. The fact that the chief negotiator is imprisoned leads to an inadequate discussion of this issue. Steps must now be taken towards the freedom of Mr. Abdullah Öcalan.”
‘Öcalan’s call opens up a new horizon for Turkey’
Hakan Tahmaz, President of the Peace Foundation, emphasized that Öcalan’s call was also an appeal for transition to a democratic struggle. He continued, “We need to move beyond the monitoring process. This call is an opportunity that opens up a new horizon for Turkey. We cannot be opponents by defining the burning of weapons. We need to consider how we arrived at the process of burning weapons, what risks were taken, and what responsibilities we assumed. This is not a process that could be disrupted at the AKP’s request but by the will of the Turkish political mind. Öcalan put the Kurdish political movement, the PKK, on a path. He said he could move the armed conflict onto legal and political grounds. This was a call to adopt a strategy of continuing the struggle to resolve the Kurdish issue on political and legal grounds. This is essentially the spirit of the new manifesto in question. He said, ‘This is an unprecedented example of conflict resolution in this world.’
The Kurdish issue is fundamentally a matter of equality and justice
The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV) Secretary-General Coşkun Üsterci stated that the Kurdish issue is fundamentally a matter of equality and justice, saying, “Kurds cannot exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms equally and fairly. This is not only an issue for Kurds, but for all peoples living in Turkey. Creating a democratic society is the responsibility of us all.”