Hasan Kendal Selçuk, a member of the Amed Bar Association Executive Board, recalled the concrete steps taken by Öcalan and the Kurdish Freedom Movement since 27 February and told ANF that “the state has not yet responded to these concrete steps. It is content only with statements of goodwill, but these are not enough.”
Lawyer Selçuk argued that the state is moving very slowly, due in part to many bureaucratic dynamics and the presence of numerous political parties in parliament, and continued: “In this sense, passing a law is not easy. It is difficult to find a solution to such a deep-rooted issue within a year, but there are urgent steps the state must take. The commission has now entered the stage of proposing laws. As the Diyarbakır Bar Association, we have also established a commission to support the work on legislation. Our main priority is that harmonization and integration laws be enacted as soon as possible. Once the PKK withdraws all its forces from Turkey, integration laws become indispensable. Parliament must begin the necessary work on this without delay.”
The “right to hope” must be applied
Selçuk emphasized the importance of taking steps regarding the “right to hope” and said: “The legal groundwork must be prepared as soon as possible. Nearly 4,000 prisoners have been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment. The ‘right to hope’ is a ruling that applies to all of them. There are finalized ECtHR decisions; they must be implemented immediately. Therefore, the necessary amendments to the execution law must be made without delay.”
Now is the time for legal regulations
Selçuk stressed that the integration laws the state and government must implement regarding the process would greatly contribute to peace, and said: “The PKK has dissolved itself and withdrawn all its forces from Turkish territory. It has expressed a will that Turkey must now make legal arrangements. It stated that certain laws and definitions need to be changed. For example, the constitutional definition of citizenship is an article that considers everyone living in Turkey to be Turkish. It is a constitutional article that excludes other religious and ethnic groups. This needs to change. Legal regulations regarding the right to education in the mother tongue must be made. The Anti-Terror Law must be revised from top to bottom.
All necessary changes regarding freedom of expression must be made immediately. Along with this, the integration laws—what we call the integration process—must be enacted as soon as possible. The situation of militants who lay down their arms must be clarified. And not only theirs, but also the status of many political prisoners inside must be clarified. Their legal and legislative basis must be prepared. Another issue is the unresolved murders. Even if the state claims that it did not want these murders, it is clear they were carried out by JITEM, a structure of the state. The state must confront this.”