"The Punishment to Peace is Unacceptable"

Peace and Democratic Solution Group members who came from Kandil and Mahmur on October 19, 2009 were sentenced to imprisonment by Diyarbakır 4. High Criminal Court and Turkey Peace Parliament brought this issue into question with a press conference handled on April 27^th, Friday.

The press statement was entitled as "Nonetheless, a call for honesty and sincerity" and Turkey Peace Group stated that they were trying to be the close witness and observer of the case in order to encourage the people who are ready to lay down arms for peace and to solve the Kurdish problem through democratic and peaceful methods.

Bakkalcı: The most important "Peace Case" of the recent history

Turkey Peace Parliament Spokesman Metin Bakkalcı said, "At the end of a period that was supported by many different parties, this group of people took the calls to return to this country seriously and laid down their arms. First, the officials of ministries welcomed them; however, later, prosecutors and judges sentenced them. This is a punishment given to all of us. We call all social parties to react against this and to get into the act to stop the military and political operations."

Bakkalcı added, "The group members Elif Uludağ is sentenced to 16 years, Lütfü Taş to 14 years, Ayşe Kara, Abdullah Yaman, Zehra Tunç, Sisin Yaman and Caziya Kabul to 9 years 6 months of imprisonment at this case and this has become the most important "Peace Case" of the recent history." He mentioned that the biggest problem of the peace issue is "Trust". He also stated that the attitude of the political power destroyed the environment of confidence directly and the given prison sentences meant a distancing from the political solution, an invitation to deaths while deepening violence.

Kardam: Was this initiative a trap?

Member of Turkey Peace Parliament researcher-writer Ahmet Kardam also made a speech at the press conference and stated that everybody thought whether the initiative was a trap. He said, "They say the only obstacle to peace is PKK however such a change in discourse doesn't reflect the reality. PKK emerged as a result of a problem." He also mentioned that 'Kurdish problem will be solved when PKK is annihilated militarily' belief is just a continuation of the paradigm that's stable for 170 years.

Demirer: Khabur went down in history

The researcher-writer Temel Demirer reminded the "Peace Cases" on 1950's and 1980's in his speech and underlined that the recent case also shows the official idelogy of the state, which is warlike and peaceless.

Demirer gave the Algerian War and a few antiwar people like Sartre as an example and said, "Khabur went down in history like Sartre. There'll be peace and the group of people coming from Khabur will be remembered with respect due to their efforts in establishing peace." (BB/HK)