Co-chairpersons of the party Gülten Kışanak and Selahattin Demirtaş issued a written statement on Wednesday and said the deaths have pulled apart the whole country and that words are not sufficient to describe the pain they have suffered. “We say ‘enough' to this war and these deaths. The painful picture today once again shows that Turkey urgently needs peace. Turkey has no option other than peace,” the statement said.
“Bringing Turkey out of this environment of clashes, stopping the deaths and initiating the peace process should be the common target of everyone. We call on the PKK and the government to immediately stop this war without losing even a second,” the statement added.
BDP Batman deputy Ayla Akat Ata also spoke to reporters ahead of a parliamentary constitutional commission meeting and said her party feels sorry for the deaths. “We are waking up to a political operation or a clash every day,” Ata said in reference to recent police operations against the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella political organization for all groups related to the PKK.
The BDP, which has been widely criticized for failing to distance itself from the PKK, says the KCK investigation is the government's method of suppressing its politicians. Ata also said she wished for God's mercy on the soldiers who were killed in the attacks and sent her condolences to their families, but also criticized the Turkish military's ground and air offensive against PKK bases in northern Iraq.
