ANKARA - Commenting on Devlet Bahçeli's call for Abdullah Ocalan to “liquidate the organization,” DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan said: “We wonder how Mr. Ocalan will respond. Open the doors and let's listen to him.”
Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan evaluated the developments on the agenda at his party's group meeting. Pointing out that his party has turned 1 year old, Bakırhan said: “We may be young, but our history of struggle goes back centuries. May DEM Party be auspicious for us and our peoples. I am glad that DEM Party exists. DEM Party is the guarantee of justice, peace and a humane life. It will continue to be and remain so. In the course of one year, there is not a class, identity or belief that we have not touched, that we have not been together, that we have not fought shoulder to shoulder.”
'OUR WAY IS THE THIRD WAY'
“DEM Party is a party of Turkey,” Bakırhan said and continued: “DEM Party has defended and will continue to defend the rights of the oppressed Kurdish people, the Uyghur Turks whose identity is ignored, the oppressed Palestinian people, the Yazidis under the threat of massacre in Shengal, Armenians, massacred women, Alevis, peoples and beliefs defending the right to nature. Our roots are in Turkey, but our spirit of struggle is all over the world. Our path is not the path of those who established the oligarchy by calling it a republic, our path is not the path of those who call themselves oppressed, occupy the office of oppressor and make people miserable. Our way is the third way as we have mentioned before. It is the way of a democratic republic where the laborers, the oppressed and those living in this country will live together equally and fairly.”
Bakırhan said that women and children are being slaughtered and that laborers are struggling for ecology and workers' rights and that they stand by laborers.
WE ARE THE REAL OWNERS OF THIS COUNTRY
Bakırhan said the following: “This country is ours, everyone should know this. We, the Kurds, the laborers, the oppressed, are the real owners of this country. This country is not the country of those who practice nationalism but turn a blind eye to decay. We will put up all the struggle we can to bring democracy to this country, which is ours, and to prevent this decay. While Turkey has turned into a place of misery and crime, the government is chasing tax and tender profiteering. They do not care about the women who are murdered on the streets every day. Not the youth enslaved by the scourge of drugs from Kars to Edirne. Not pensioners who cannot make ends meet. They are busy with tenders, giving contracts to cronies and imposing new taxes. Be sure, sometimes we are surprised too. Such events happen that it is difficult to understand. Just last week they introduced a tax that has never been applied in any country in the world. It is tragically funny, but this is a government that has come up with the idea of taxing even the credit card limit.
CHANGE IS IMPERATIVE
Those who cannot access health care in prison, those who have been unjustly imprisoned and lost their lives, the hundreds of thousands of people in prison, they cannot even feed them, they cannot even give them water, they do not even have a doctor. They do not respond to the calls for justice from those who seek justice. In other words, this country has collapsed and decayed in every sense of the word, and is experiencing the lowest political and social lows. Change is now a necessity for Turkey. No one has the right to deprive the people of justice, democracy and food in Turkey's second century. From here we call out to the government and its partners; even an injustice done in a single area spreads like poison to the whole society. In order to prevent this poison from spreading further, the government, the opposition and the Parliament must take urgent steps to ensure peace and justice. We all have great duties. Turks, Kurds, Alevis, Sunnis, conservatives, people of different faiths, let's put a stop to this, we all have great duties and responsibilities.
WE MUST DEFEND PEACE AND DEMOCRACY
Turkey has come to these days because of a lack of empathy. Therefore, our friends who lead a secular life and who are concerned about this issue, instead of making a choice between the tutelage of the past and the tutelage of the present, must defend our brotherly life in the second century for more justice and more democracy. Today, to defend peace is to defend democratization. Today, in this country where you are also a victim, we can reach a democratic republic by taking the spirit of the first Parliament as a basis and recognizing the rights and laws of Kurds. In the first Parliament, all the colors of Turkey were present under that roof. Everyone sat in that Assembly with their traditional national clothes and their own language. Afterwards, each and every one of us faced a tutelage that was imposed by force and made into a single color and a single belief. I would like to remind those who defend this tutelage of the cemetery in Çanakkale. Maybe some of you have been to the Çanakkale cemetery, there are names of Kurdish citizens from Amed to Muş, from Siirt to Kars on those gravestones. Most importantly, the names of citizens from Kobanê, whom you call 'terrorists' today, are also on the gravestones in that martyrdom.”
CALL TO CHP ON THE KURDISH ISSUE
Stating that the main opposition party has important duties and responsibilities for a democratic republic, Bakırhan said that the Republican People's Party (CHP) can play an important role in the democratic solution of the Kurdish issue. Bakırhan said: “The CHP should stand by the solution without taking refuge in the status quo and without drifting to an anti-solution position and for the democratic resolution of Turkey's fundamental issues, especially the Kurdish issue. If the CHP fails to do so, it will not only cause great harm to our country but also to our future. Most of all, by defending the status quo and not putting forward a solution program for the Kurdish issue, it will do itself a great disservice and cause itself great loss. Dear friends, I would like to make a call again to all political parties in the parliament; Let's discuss peace, democracy, and the rights of those who demand rights together in this parliamentary session and realize them through negotiation and dialogue.”
THOSE WHO SAY 'THE KURDS MADE A DEAL WITH THE GOVERNMENT'...
Bakırhan said, “Kurds decides who they talk to, who they sit with, whose hand they hold. Moreover, we are not sitting with anyone, talking to anyone, or cooking something behind closed doors. Therefore, those who say 'the Kurds have made a deal with the government' from the very beginning want this country to continue in this way without a solution by putting a barrier to the ground for dialogue that may emerge. Again, we call on political parties, feminists, ecologists, workers, laborers and professional organizations, NGOs; Let's not leave peace, democracy and justice at the mercy of those in power. Wherever the working people, the poor and the oppressed do not come together and raise their demands together, the powers that be decide about our future. Their decision does not include our demands. Therefore, let us socialize peace. Let's put our hands under the stone and fight shoulder to shoulder to solve the fundamental problems of this country.”
'END ISOLATION, LET'S LISTEN TO ÖCALAN'S CALL'
Referring to Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli's call to PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is under absolute isolation, to “liquidate his organization” in today's group meeting, Bakırhan said: “For 43 months, Mr. Öcalan and his lawyers and family have been unable to meet. Mr. Bahçeli, like you, we wonder what Öcalan will say, what kind of call he will make. Then end the isolation, let us all watch and see what Mr. Öcalan says to his own organization and friends. For 43 months, is it possible to make such a futile call to an island where no bird flies and no caravan passes by? Open the doors, let's listen and see.”