Tens of thousands of people were at the meeting held by the Turkish Peace Council at Kadıköy, Istanbul on Sunday (August 31).
The speakers Gülseren Yoleri, head of the Human Rights Association Istanbul branch (İHD), Aydın Çubukçu, general director of Hayat TV, Ufuk Uras, Istanbul deputy and the President of the Freedom and Solidarity party (ÖDP), Emine Ayna, co-chairperson of the Democratic Society party (DTP), and Sami Evren, head of the Confederation of Public Worker’s Unions (KESK), made the same demand: Lay down the armes, solve the Kurdish problem through democratic means.
The crowd chanted slogans such as “Mr. Öcalan”, “Long live the fraternity of peoples”, “Kurdana azadi, Freedom to Kurds”, “No to war, peace now”, “Equality, fraternity, freedom to the Kurdish nation”.
Çubukçu: This year 178 people have died
Yoleri, who was the first speaker at the meeting, said that all these clashes, operations, burning forests, exploding bombs were pushing peace back decades.
Speaking for the Peace Council, Çubukçu said, “178 people have died in the first half of the year 2008. In thirty years, thousands of people died. This war must end. The resources used by the war should be transferred to the development of the region, to the education.”
Uras: One Thousand Hopes candidates will continue to struggle
Criticizing the closure case against the DTP, Uras said that the road to the peace pass through facing and trying the makers of the September 12 military coup and the Ergenekon case. He also added that the Thousand Hopes candidates will struggle against the ruling party and the Republican People’s party (CHP) at the next local elections and everyone who believes in peace should support them.
Ayna: The PKK is not the problem, but the outcome
Emphasizing that it the Kurds who want peace more than anyone in Turkey, the DTP co-chairperson Ayna said, “The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) is not the problem, but the outcome of the denial of the Kurdish identity for the past eighty years. If we can name the problem correctly, then we will be able to solve the problem.”
“Let us not beg for peace from the state”
Stating that it was meaningless to beg for peace from the state, Ayna stated that it was the proletariat, the Kurds, the Turks, the women, the workers and the every oppressed section of the society who were going to win the peace struggling together.
“We do not want the Turks behind us, but by us. Peace cannot come only with the struggle of the Kurds. It can come with the contribution of the peoples of Turkey as well.”
Speaking after Ayna, KESK president Evren said, “Those who produce should solve the problem. The Kurdish problem is also the problem of the proletariat.” (BÇ/EZÖ/TB)
