Ararat News (ANP) – Brussels, November 14, 2013 – Speaking at a press conference in the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels, Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) asked EU to take responsibility and to play active role in the peace process between Kurds and Turks. Demirtas call also Westerns countries to not support the Islamic terrorist groups in Syria and respect the Kurdish provisional self autonomy. Demirtas criticised the EU terror list and asked to remove Kurdish worker party PKK from that.
The press conference “Turkey: Still on the road to peace with PKK?” has been organised by German MEP Jürgen KLUTE from European United Left – Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL).
Selahattin Demirtas called on EU and the European politicians to be proactive and to support the solution of the Kurdish question, because “it doesn’t concern only the rights of the Kurdish people in particular, but the general democratisation and the accession process of Turkey to EU as well”.
“We need not only dialogue between Turkey and the Kurds. EU should encourage real negotiations between the two parties in order to find long term sustainable solutions in the interest of all the ethnical and religious minorities in Turkey”, underlined Mr Demirtas.
The Chairman of the EP-Kurdish Friendship Group, Jürgen Klute suggested the participation of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee of the European Parliament as observer of the peace negotiations: “This could be a first step involving European, Kurdish and Turkish parliamentarians as observers in the peace process. As we know from similar conflicts in Ireland, Colombia and other countries, a third party monitoring the peace negotiations between two sides can have very constructive and positive role for the peace establishment”.
In its recent progress report, the European Commission underlined its support for the peace process between Turkish government and PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
West should stop supporting Islamic terrorist and respect Kurdish rights
Regarding a question about the situation in Syria and West Kurdistan Region, Mr Demirtas said that the West which supports directly and indirectly the Islamic violent and terrorist groups, should respect the decisions of Kurds and other ethnical and religious minorities (Kurds, Arabs, Armenian, Syriac and Circassian) for provisional self autonomy.
Criminalisation’s policy against Kurds
Demirtas call also EU to stop the criminalisation policy against Kurds and remove PKK from the terror list pushed by US and Turkey. “Today PKK is not a fighting organisation but in a process for peacefully solution of the Kurdish conflict” Demirtas said.
Demirtas and Baydemir welcomes President Barzani to Amed
After a question, commenting on the visit of President Massoud Barzani alongside with Prime Minister Erdogan in Diyarbekir (Amed) this weekend, Mr. Demirtas said: “Mr. Barzani is always welcome to Amed, it’s also his home. He is an experienced Kurdish politician. We hope that the meeting between Mr. Barzani and Erdogan will contribute positively for the peace process among Kurds and between Kurds and Turks”.
“At the same time, we have to know that the policy of Erdogan is not always friendly towards Kurds. We expect that Mr. Barzani’s visit in Amed will also be in the interest of Kurdish people in general”, added Mr. Demirtas.
Visiting Brussels, the mayor of Diyarbekir Osman Baydemir also welcomed President Barzani and expressed the readiness of the city to host the Kurdish President. Mr Baydemir hopes that this visit will also contribute to the ongoing dialogue for peace process.
http://www.araratnews.com/nuce.php?aid=733
