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Former DTP members’ Makhmour visit might hurt Kurdish initiative
The DTP was shut down earlier this month by a Constitutional Court decision on charges of links to separatist terrorism.
Ex-DTP deputies Sevahir Bayındır, İbrahim Binici and Özdal Üçar, several mayors and party administrators visited the UN-operated camp on Monday. In their speeches, they emphasized the importance of terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) head Abdullah Öcalan as an equal partner to the state. Turkey has consistently refused to sit down with the PKK for talks, but as part of the government’s recent Kurdish initiative half of the 12,000 refugees at the camp are to be repatriated. Turkey has also long accused Makhmour of being a recruitment base for the PKK.
In his speech, Şırnak deputy Bayındır said, “We will go to Kandil if necessary for a solution,” referring to the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, where many PKK bases are located. The slogans and chants during the speech also called for talking directly to the terrorist leader.
Meanwhile, the politicians’ convoy was playing PKK anthems as they entered the camp. “We can’t live without our identity. You have put up a resistance and come here for freedom. Now they are saying ‘We will eliminate [the Kurdish movement] under the guise of the Kurdish initiative. If the state really wants a solution, they should listen to Makhmour. They came to Iraq, why didn’t they come to Makhmour? We want to act as a bridge between Ankara and Makhmour. If we are assigned a task, there are no limits to what we can do. We can go to Kandil if necessary. We are here. We will take your messages to Parliament and the government. We envision is a multi-lingual, multi cultured system,” Bayındır said.
Bayındır recalled that in October a group of 32 Kandil and Makhmour residents returned to Turkey. The PKK and the DTP refer to this group as the “peace group.” “They [the government] wanted to expedite the process. Now they should solve the problems of the peace group first. Unity can only be possible with a democratic initiative and by ending clashes.
You, who have been forced out of your villages, can now return freely. You sent the peace group, now you are saying, ‘let’s see what happens to them, and we’ll come accordingly’.”
During the visit, the Makhmour People’s Council made a declaration laying down 10 conditions for returning to Turkey. Makhmour residents asked for the UN to oversee the returns, and also asked for mass residential areas in Turkey where they could settle together. They also asked for and end to the isolation of Öcalan, who is jailed on a prison island, and for the government to announce its roadmap. Journalists were taken out of the camp after the declaration. The deputies stayed in Makhmour overnight. Some believe that the arrangement was to accommodate a group of PKK administrators from Kandil, who would be joining a secret meeting at night.
Erdoğan says Türk’s words unfortunate
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said former DTP chairman Ahmet Türk’s speech announcing the decision of former DTP deputies to stay in Parliament and not resign was “unfortunate.” Türk’s speech made it clear that the deputies were staying as directed by Öcalan through his lawyers. “We do not treat any illegal organization or individual as an equal partner,” Erdoğan said, speaking to the press shortly before his departure to Syria at Esenboğa Airport on Monday.
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