50 Kurdish Politicians Begin Indefinite Hunger Strike in Amed/Diyarbakır

5th September 2016

50 Kurdish politicians began an indefinite hunger strike demanding that the state abide by international human rights and allow either his family or his lawyers of a party delegation to see Mr. Abdullah Öcalan with whom all communication has been cut for the last 515 days. Moreover, it is certain that during the 15 July failed coup attempt the coupists targeted him and there were clashes in the İmralı prison island. The whole world must know that there is profound anxiety over Mr. Öcalan’s health and security. Kurdish people and their institutions and representatives will not accept such inhuman and unlawful treatment of their leadership. The group on hunger strike at DBP headquarters in Diyarbakır, includes MPs, co-mayors, municipal assembly members, party executives, members of the women’s movement, lawyers, artists and members of many civil society associations began an indefinite hunger strike in Amed/Diyarbakır. The Hunger Strike has been organised by DTK (Democratic Society Congress), HDK (Peoples’ Democratic Congress), KJA (Free Women’s Congress), DBP (Democratic Regions Party) and HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party). The strike will continue until this most legal and legitimate request is fulfilled.

Turkey’s Municipal Elections: Implications for the Kurdish-Turkish Peace Process

PUBLIC MEETING

DATE AND TIME: Thursday 8 May, 6.30-8.30pm

VENUE: Room L67, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H 0XG

Speakers: David Morgan, historian and writer, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign; Father Joe Ryan, Chair of the Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Commission; Barry White, National Union of Journalists representative to the European Federation of Journalists; Michelle Allison, Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) UK

Chaired by Evrim Yildiz, SOAS Kurdish Society

 

KNK: Release all critically ill prisoners in Turkey

The KNK has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Erdogan and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ calling for the release of hundreds of critically ill prisoners who are languishing in Turkish jails without proper medical attention. As the letter explains, despite recent changes to the law that would allow for seriously ill prisoners to be released, any prisoner charged under the anti-terror law who is suffering health problems has no chance of release under the current rules.

We know of at least 544 prisoners in Turkey are seriously ill who deserve to be released. We also know that 2300 people have died in Turkish prisons in the last 13 years.

The appeal has been signed by over 12o prominent public figures from across the world, including Selahattin Demirtaş, Co-chair of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP); writer and former political prisoner Ragip Zarakolu; Professor Noam Chomsky; several Members of the British, Irish and European Parliaments; and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, to name a few. The appeal was also published in Turkish daily Radikal.

KCK: “We salute and congratulate our people for their great success”

Latest statement from the KCK:
TO OUR PEOPLES AND THE PUBLIC OPINION

Despite all the inequitable and unbalanced conditions, the people of Kurdistan achieved a very important success in the local elections. Due to the newly-ratified metropolitan law they had already lost 22 towns won in the 2009 elections; but they secured a big increase in the number of municipalities by gaining 27 towns more in recent elections. We salute and congratulate our people for their great success in the elections, their recalcitrant resistance in the face of all the repressions and conspiracies of the AKP administration, and for their defense of their will and honor.

 
The BDP ran its elections campaign under the slogan of “WITH SELF-RULE, TOWARDS FREE INDENTITY”. Leader APO attributed the importance of a referendum to this election and our movement has regarded the BDP’s success in the election as the people’s attaining their right to self-rule. We interpret the results as the ratification of democratic self-rule by our people. So, the great thrill and enthusiasm of the people of Kurdistan for their election success is quite understandable.

Initial Observations from Election Monitors

PRESS RELEASE 31 March 2014

 

We have observed the elections in Istanbul and would like to put on record our concerns about reports of numerous abuses and irregularities that were reported to us on election day at various polling stations.

 

How the HDP did in the elections

 

In Istanbul where we were observing the election, the BDP was standing as part of the HDP, an alliance of progressive social movements and individuals who had united to form the new party in October last year. The candidates for the Beyoglu district of Istanbul were an architect who had been leading opposition to urban redevelopment and the sister of a victim of the Roboski massacre.

 

We demonstrated solidarity with the HDP by joining a team of party members distributing leaflets in the street in the busy shopping district near Taksim.

 

BDP holds Washington conference

This week, the BDP representative office in Washington held a conference to discuss the role of the Kurds in the Middle East. Professor Michael Gunter, the Secretary-General of the EU Turkey Civic Commission (EUTCC) and professor of political science at Tennessee Tech University, wrote this report.

 

 

THE CURRENT STATE REGARDING THE TURKISH-KURDISH PEACE PROCESS

Professor Michael Gunter

On 28 October 2013, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Representative Office in the United States, organized a one-day conference on “The Kurdish Role in the New Middle East” at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The primary concern of this conference was to analyze the current state of the foundering Turkish-Kurdish peace process. This brief report will detail some of the most important points made at this conference.

Cengiz Candar, a prominent Turkish journalist, argued that a neutral third party facilitator was needed, not a one-man show as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan currently appeared to be. At the present time the Turkish and Kurdish sides are finding it difficult to dialogue. Indeed, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the BDP, said that so far the peace process has seemed more like a monologue than a dialogue. Cengiz Candar also added that the following are necessary for the peace process to move forward: 1. Patience; 2. A vision for an end game; 3. Political courage; and 4. A procedure to follow facilitated by a third party.

Conference to be held in Washington next week: The Kurdish Role in the New Middle East

 

Organized by Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Representative Office in the USA

Date: Monday, 28 October 2013, 09:00 a.m. – 05:00 p.m.
Place: The National Press Club, Holeman Lounge
529 14th St NW Washington, D.C., 20045

The Kurds have emerged as crucial regional actors out of the rapid political transformations that have been sweeping the Middle East over the last decade. This trend has accelerated with the Arab Spring. The “Kurdish problems” that have been compartmentalized across the four nation-states in the Middle East are now more interconnected and more globalized. This has been pressuring Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran as well as global powers to revise their conventional Kurdish policies. The Kurds have been viewed as an element of regional instability throughout the twentieth century. Recent political developments, however, strongly suggest that while the provision of justice for Kurds is essential for the restoration and maintenance of order in the Middle East, the Kurds themselves command valuable political, economic, social and human resources to contribute to the advancement of peace and stability for the states and peoples of the region in the twenty first century.

BDP MP for Hakkari Adil Zozani: ‘We are determined to take this journey for peace’

INTERVIEW

1 October 2013

 

Mr Adil Zozani, Member of Parliament for the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), was recently in the UK to attend the Labour Party Conference and address a public meeting with members of London’s Kurdish community. Peace in Kurdistan Campaign spoke with him about the conference, the BDP’s role in current peace negotiations for the resolution of the Kurdish Question, and about Turkey’s questionable role in developments in Rojava, northern Syria.

How has your message been received so far in the UK, and in particular, at the Labour Party Conference, where you spoke at a meeting that was attended by the Turkish Ambassador to the UK?

The Labour Party Conference was very interesting, and it was clear they are very excited about the possibility being in leadership again.  I met many people who were in solidarity with the Kurdish movement and found that the Kurdish question was well known amongst them.

Northern Kurdistan Conference: Öcalan’s freedom a must for a solution

This article was originally published in Firat News.

Northern Kurdistan Conference: Öcalan’s freedom a must for a solution
ANF – AMED 17.06.2013 15:48:07

The two day “Northern Kurdistan Conference for Solution and Unity” in the main Kurdish city Amed has ended on Sunday. The conference was organized as a part of the four conferences Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan suggested should take place in the ongoing process in search of a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question.

The final declaration of the conference called on the government to take more sincere steps for the solution of the Kurdish question and demanded Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s freedom to ensure a healthy progress in the solution process.

Reading the Turkish side of the final declaration, which was released in Kurdish as well, DTK (Democratic Society Congress) co-chair Aysel Tuğluk underlined that “the conference which was attended by Kurdistani identities has been a significant step serving for a free future for Kurdistan”.

Emergency call to the world from Northern Syria

 

A-Beginning of the Resistance in Syria and Establishment of Autonomous Regional Administration

More than two years ago -on 15 March 2011- when some students in Daraa wrote the slogans about the Arab Spring on the walls Syrian government responded so violently that the resistance and conflicts are still going on for all this time.

The anti-democratic, human rights violating, oppressive and dangerous political attitudes of Syrian regime resulted in Syrian people’s rebellion. This rebellion which is supported by all parts of the society against the oppressions was already started by Kurds in Kurdish Region of northern Syria in 2004. Then the rebellion was started in Qamishli and spread over all other Kurdish cities. Unfortunately during the 13 days of the rebellion 37 Kurdish young activists were killed and hundreds of them were arrested by Syrian Army.

Seven years after the rebellion in Kurdish Region the democratic and peaceful demonstrations started in Syria again in 2011. Syrian regime chose the violent response once more and the demonstration areas were targeted by Syrian Army. As a result thousands of people were shot and killed. After the violent response, demonstrations turned into an armed struggle. The leftist groups in Syria started to attend the Free Syrian Army and chose to fight back the violence from Syrian government. However the organized Kurdish society chose neither the Syrian regime nor the armed struggle but as a third option chose the democratic and peaceful way.