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European MP says PKK cannot be excluded
from talks
27.8.2010 |
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August
27, 2010
DIYARBAKIR, — A
couple of weeks ago a delegation from Europe went to
Diyarbakir and was denied access to the prison. The
delegation was principally constituted of Members
from German left party, DIE LINKE, from European
Parliament, Jürgen Klute, from the National
Parliament (Bundestag), Ms. Ingrid Remmers and from
Members of the regional Parliament of
Nordrhein-Westphalen (biggest region in the
North-West), Ms. Bärbel Beuermann (head of the
parliamentary group), Mr. Rüdiger Sagel.
Additionally, Mr. Martin Dolzer journalist and
expert on the region and Michael Knapp, human right
activist, also were part of the delegation.
ANF has spoken to European MP Jürgen Klute, who
underlined how it is clearly impossible for the
Turkish government to envisage a solution to the
Kurdish question without involving the Kurds and the
representatives they will choose.
Let’s start from the recent statements by Turkish
government ministers who admitted that indeed
government officials are meeting and talking with
Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
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European MP Jürgen Klute was part of the delegation
which was refused entry to Diyarbakir prison. |
Before the summer I had
sent an open letter to Prime Minister Erdogan asking
him to call for an halt to military operations and
to indeed work for the commencement of some sort of
dialogue with the Kurdish representatives. It is
clear that the Turkish government cannot exclude the
Kurdistan Workers Party PKK or indeed Abdullah
Ocalan from this dialogue, because they are both
part of the conflict. And you really want to work
for a solution you must talk to all the parties
involved in the conflict, and you must let all of
the parties involved to have the possibility to say
what they think.
In this sense I think the fact that the Turkish
government has admitted that they are indeed talking
with Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan is a positive
development.
The European Union and in general the European
public I think should support the process of
dialogue. European MPs should encourage this
process.
On 12 September there will be a referendum to change
the Constitution but the amendments do not tackle
the Kurdish demands at all. What is your opinion on
this?
Not long ago the Turkish Minister of Justice,
Sadullah Ergin, came to the European parliament to
explain at length what the Constitutional amendments
will mean. I think that in principle it is a
positive development the fact that the government
has started to address the issue of the need for
change in the Constitution. On the other hand we
cannot avoid noticing that what is proposed is not a
new Constitution. What the people are asked to vote
for on the 12 September referendum are small
changes. I specifically asked the minister about the
Kurds,www.ekurd.netand
the Kurdish demands. Because clearly the proposed
amendments do not tackle the Kurdish issue at all,
there is no mention of Kurdish people rights or
recognition of the Kurdish people rights. And I
think we should closely follow the developments
after the referendum, because clearly the fact that
there is no mention of the Kurdish people rights
could be a way to avoid the issue altogether. On the
other hand the government might think to address the
Kurdish issue on a separate base.
The BDP is proposing the Democratic Autonomy model.
In Europe also there are discussions going on, and I
think in particular of the Basque country, about an
alternative model for the society. Why is Europe,
and the left in particularly so scared about
addressing this issue?
I think that when we talk of autonomous model we
have to keep in mind that the risk is to cross the
border and ending up talking about nationalism There
are reach regions, and I think of Italy for example,
which are only talking about autonomy because they
ultimately want to separate from the poorer regions.
Regional autonomy sometimes can end up in
nationalism.
Yes, but, should it not be the role of the left to
avoid this risk indeed promoting autonomy as an
alternative model of society, a model which goes
beyond the defunct nation-state model, for example.
Because it looks to me that avoiding to address and
debate the autonomy models proposed hiding behind
the fact that there is the risk of ending up mixing
with right wing nationalism, is the easy way out. In
other words, nationalism of the risk of it is the
fig leaf for the left which does not probably have
an idea about autonomous projects and proposals.
This is true, I agree with you. And I think it
should be important for the left to debate these
issues, but still I think is important to keep in
mind the risks. Look at Belgium for example, the
Flemish speaking community basically is saying that
they don't want to pay for the French speaking
community, but in the end is an economic question.
You went to Diyarbakir and were denied access to the
prison.
We had meeting with several people, including
Diyarbakir mayor, Osman Baydemir, and Sur mayor,
Abdullah Demirbas. When we asked to visit the
politicians and human rights members held in prison
the authorities started a kind of game basically
sending us from one person to the other, from one
office to the other. In the end we understood that
clearly the authorities did not want us to visit the
prison.
What will you do now?
We will write out questions to present to the
European Parliament on different issues, including
the allegations about the use of chemical weapons by
the Turkish army. We could not have satisfactory
evidence on this issue, but other MPs and groups
claim they do or they are going to be able to proof
that chemical weapons were indeed used.
Also we will underline to the parliament that the
PKK has once again called a unilateral ceasefire
until the 20 of September. We will ask the European
Commission to act and do everything in its power to
put pressure on the Turkish government which we
think should grasp this opportunity. Finally we will
be back in Diyarbakir on 18 of October as observers
at the trial of the Kurdish politicians still in
prison.
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