 decision to end its armed campaign.){kind=link}
Leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on Wednesday urged the Turkish government to act swiftly to consolidate the peace process following the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) decision to end its armed campaign.
“Turkey doesn’t have a minute to lose, above all at a time of war between Iran and Israel,” said DEM Party Co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları, warning that practical steps toward dissolving the PKK were proceeding too slowly.
Her comments came on the sixth day of an escalating air war between Israel and Iran, which has raised fears that efforts to repair relations between the Turkish state and the country’s Kurdish population could stall.
“It’s time the government did what it needs to do,” said Co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan, echoing calls for improved prison conditions for PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan, who initiated the call for his group to lay down arms earlier this year. Öcalan has been imprisoned on İmralı Island since 1999.
The DEM Party leaders also called for the establishment of a parliamentary committee to monitor the ongoing process, which is being negotiated between the DEM Party, the Turkish government and the PKK.
They said the process of laying down arms would gain momentum if Ankara took additional steps toward “democratization,” including the normalization of Kurdish-language rights.
The PKK declared its dissolution on May 12, ending more than four decades of insurgency that has resulted in over 40,000 deaths. The announcement followed a February statement by Öcalan urging the group to lay down arms.
© Agence France-Presse