PKK Executive Committee Member: Do not Participate in AKP’s War Games

Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Executive Council Member Duran Kalkan called on the Turkish army “not to participate in war games” of AKP in a program called ‘Political Area’ on the Kurdish-language TV channel Med Nûçe.

Regarding the guerillas, Kalkan said, they “should not launch strikes against soldiers who do not go on operations nor attack guerrillas or civilians, who are not interested in political administration, who are simply at the border or standing at their post to protect their homeland.”

According to Fırat News Agency, the headlines from Kalkan’s declarations are as follows:

Call on the army and guerrillas

“I call on military and other forces not to participate in AKP’s war games. Absolutely no strikes or attacks will be initiated against them by us. And guerrillas should retaliate only against the guilty ones.”

“If this situation does not get better, Turkey’s democratic powers, intelligentsia, writers, and especially soldiers’ mothers and their families should not send their children to military service.”

“I call on HGP [People’s Defense Forces] and YJA STAR [PKK’s women’s guerrilla units]: They should not launch strikes against soldiers who do not go on operations nor attack guerillas or civilians, who are not interested in political administration, who are simply at the border or standing at their post to protect their homeland. This is not in line with our vision.”

“Guerrillas should retaliate only against those who are guilty. They should absolutely refrain from using violence on those who do not participate in the war.”

Meetings with AKP

“They consciously try to distort the past, and what is more, they try to make some facts forgotten, and even wipe them off history. İmralı meetings, and before that Oslo meetings took place.” 

“We made meetings with AKP. We made these meetings as a party, Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) made them, we made them through HDP committee as well as other mediators. The meetings at İmralı Island continued within the framework of ‘Peace and Democratic Negotiation Process Draft’ and lasted until the Dolmabahçe declaration on 28 February [2015]. An agreement was reached on 10 points and it was decided that the committees would be established to move into negotiations on these points.”

“Now, it is as if these have never happened. AKP is trying to erase these from people’s memory as if these meetings were never made.”

Ceasefire

“Some politicians are calling on us to ‘give up the struggle unconditionally and to surrender.’ To where will we surrender? What have you achieved that you are calling on us? Has the institution of politics functioned, solved the problems, and has PKK interfered with it?

“We did not have such a conflict in mind. This conflict has resulted from an attack AKP and Tayyip Erdoğan brought on.”

Autonomy

“Kurds have declared autonomy, and they have said: ‘Since the parliament in Ankara does not solve our problems, ignores the deputies we have sent, does not even hold meetings [with us], does not even consider us to be from Turkey, we will then solve our own problems and will establish our own parliaments. We will declare our autonomy and solve our own problems.’”

“If the elected representatives cannot find a solution, cannot show political willpower for solution, then the electors will set forth their own willpowers in a new way. And these are their utmost legitimate rights.”

“Approaches that address declaration of autonomy together with a declaration of war are not correct. Civil society is building this. This has nothing to do with HPG’s intervention.” (AS/DA)

Click here to read the article in Turkish