“As a person who was one of the spokespeople for the DTP in the past, I can clearly say our party officials had neither demands -- not even in the form of suggestions -- nor received promises from government officials regarding arrivals at Habur and judges and prosecutors,” Demirtaş said on Tuesday at his party’s group meeting in Parliament.
His words were in regard to allegations made by Hatip Dicle, a former Democracy Party (DEP) deputy, who said former DTP leader Ahmet Türk and Interior Minister Beşir Atalay talked about legal procedures and how the arriving group should be saved from prosecution. Türk and Atalay both said they have not talked about legal procedures regarding the group.
Türk and Atalay had met on Oct. 17, two days prior to the arrival of a group of 34 people affiliated with the PKK who surrendered at the Habur border gate on the Turkish-Iraqi border as the Turkish government was preparing to unveil measures to broaden the democratic rights and freedoms of the country’s citizens. Eight of the group’s members came from the Kandil Mountains, where the PKK has a camp, and the rest came from Makhmour, a refugee camp in northern Iraq. None of them were arrested.
Demirtaş added that Dicle, who is in prison, does not have accurate information regarding the process and that Türk and Atalay talked about the arrival of the group in order to prevent a chaotic situation at the border gate.
Demirtaş stated that the government should have courage to solve the Kurdish issue. Following the arrival of the group, the process was stalled as DTP supporters joyfully celebrated in town squares the first-ever peaceful return of people that had gone to the mountains. The opposition said the government was collaborating with the PKK and accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of treason.
Meanwhile, CHP parliamentary group head Kemal Anadol announced yesterday that his party had submitted to the Parliament Speaker’s Office a motion of censure against Interior Minister Atalay. “We request Parliament discuss a motion to censure Atalay, who has affected the judicial process of members of the terrorist organization, mobilized state facilities to ensure a special trial order, violated laws to avoid arresting members of the terrorist organization, engaged in bargaining that guided the judiciary and carried out secret negotiations,” Anadol said in his statement. The motion is based on the release of PKK members at the Habur border gate following interrogations.
