As the process that began after Abdullah Öcalan’s “Call for Peace and a Democratic Society” on 27 February enters its first year, the DEM Party organized an important conference regarding the process. Many people from different parts of the world attended the International Peace and Democratic Society Conference held in Istanbul and shared their experiences.
Serhat Eren, DEM Party Amed MP, who attended the international conference organized by the DEM Party in Istanbul, evaluated the developments and the DEM Party’s views for ANF.
Stating that they held the conference to socialize peace and ensure correct international recognition at a time when the process had passed its first year, Eren said: “For more than about a year, we have been experiencing a process: the Peace and Democratic Society process initiated by Mr. Öcalan on February 27. For a long time, there has been a commission established within the Parliament, there are efforts to socialize the process, and there are hearings. From time to time there are bottlenecks, but Mr. Öcalan is making great efforts to open up the blocked points. As the DEM Party, in this process, we wanted to discuss and talk about the role of political parties and NGOs, listen to civil society organizations and activists who have experienced conflict resolution processes in many parts of the world, and share, discuss, and put these lived experiences at the service of the process we are experiencing today. In one dimension, we did it for this. Another dimension is, of course, how this process can be socialized. One of the biggest problems is the socialization of this process — turning it into a demand of Turkish society. This conference is important because the AKP and CHP have not done enough to socialize this process.”
Eren said that the commission’s visit to Öcalan was important and valuable, but insufficient, adding that “the commission established within the Parliament is valuable and important. Its work on the solution of the Kurdish issue is valuable. Is it sufficient? No, but it is valuable. The commission’s holding of hearings can be defined as the first phase. The commission’s meeting with Mr. Öcalan itself has historical importance. Perhaps it has gone beyond evaluating the Kurdish issue purely through a security lens; now the social, political, and legal dimensions of the Kurdish issue are accepted, Mr. Öcalan is considered a political interlocutor on behalf of the Kurdish people, and this is an important stage in accepting the political interlocutor of the Kurds. But from this point on, what needs to be done is to address the political and legal dimensions of the Kurdish issue and to move to the stage of making legal arrangements to solve this issue politically. Although this stage will not solve the entire Kurdish issue, what needs to be done in this process, which we define as the first step laying the stones for the solution of the Kurdish issue, are steps that will ensure full participation in social and political life. On the other hand, we can evaluate this as a process of making legal regulations that organize society’s right to organize and freedom of expression, and at the same time guarantee democratic politics.”
Eren also emphasized that in the new phase, free working conditions for Leader Apo must be created, and continued: “The priority steps that must be taken in this process should be the following: The conditions of freedom of Mr. Öcalan, whom we accept as the political interlocutor for the solution of this issue, must be improved, and his freedom must be ensured; legal regulations must be made to recognize the ‘right to hope.’ Another issue is making laws that will enable the members of the movement, which has completely laid down arms and dissolved itself, to participate in social, political, and democratic life. There are perhaps thousands of political actors, politicians, in prisons. Likewise, legal regulations must be made to guarantee the conditions for many political actors who were forced to emigrate abroad and pushed out of politics to be able to engage in politics in Turkey. Alongside these, of course, certain legal regulations must be made regarding local governments. By regulations regarding local administration, we do not mean only the return of trustees, but legal arrangements in which powers are transferred from the center to the local level, where local people decide on local problems, and where local democracy is recognized. These are among our fundamental expectations.”