78 figures in Istanbul stress importance of Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan

Politicians, journalists, writers, artists, intellectuals and a group of 78 people gathered for a democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. 78 people held a press conference under the title “Peace Call Statement” in a Taksim hotel in Istanbul and made a statement.

A banner reading “Call for Peace” was hung in the meeting hall. Many local and international journalists followed the meeting.

Kurdish politician Ahmed Turk and many representatives of civil organizations and politicians attended the meeting and announced their support for the statement.

The Honorary Head of the Human Rights Association, Akin Berdal, who replaces him among the signatories, spoke at the beginning of the meeting and talked about ways and means of achieving peace.

The statement was also read by human rights activist and member of the group, Nemat Tanerkulo.

The statement, titled “Turkey and the Middle East need peace more than ever” and “A policy of peace and freedom instead of a policy of war and isolation,” stated the following:

 “Turkey has been searching for peace since 1993 to solve the Kurdish issue through peaceful and democratic methods and has made many efforts. This happened between 2013 and 2015 and was accomplished. But unfortunately, this latest attempt was not successful, and many important developments occurred in.” The aforementioned solution phase. In this phase, for the first time in Turkey, the war ended and a serious atmosphere of stability and social peace was created.

Meetings were held on Imrali Island with government intervention. This atmosphere has become one of the most important vital factors. A law was issued regarding the dialogue process in order to determine the future of society. The government also established a delegation of wises. The entire peace and settlement process was talked and discussed in Turkey. Important reports have been prepared. The delegation of the wises conducted work in 7 regions of Turkey and prepared reports on how to solve the Kurdish issue. The delegation's reports stated that a solution is possible and the people support the solution. Important things also happened at a historical moment. One of the features of this stage is that the government and the state conducted a dialogue with the leader Abdullah Ocalan, who represented the Kurds as an addressee.

The year 2015 dealt a blow to the phase of peace and solution. Turkey headed towards war in a rapid manner, and thus the economic crisis occurred and many new problems and crises began. There is an ongoing war in Turkey, Iraq and Syria since July 24, 2015. This war and the ongoing process are leading the country into a stage of political, legal, economic, cultural, moral and many other problems.

The Turkish regime turned into an authoritarian regime during this period. On the other hand, the political and social opposition in Turkey did not make any changes to resolve the Kurdish issue. The authoritarian government showed its influence in a sharp manner and put pressure on the opposition, and the judiciary became under the control of politics. Politics made the judiciary a tool of threat. This system has reached the point where it violates its existing laws, and as the Imrali Island Prison Act shows, all laws and regulations have been violated. There has been a serious retreat from international and national law.

When we look at the reality of the Middle East becoming a war zone, building a peace process is the most urgent humanitarian task. Standing for peace and against war is a matter of principle. We oppose and criticize all practices that violate human rights in Palestine, northern and eastern Syria, Iraq, Karabakh, and Ukraine. Negligence these policies that lead to killing and forced displacement is due to the absence or weakness of peace policy. The principle of "peace in the country and peace in the world" should be protected in the form of "peace in Turkey and peace in the Middle East."

Social problems can be solved by referring to the values of equality, justice and freedom with a culture of dialogue and compromise. The way to do this is to protect the co-existence of peoples on the basis of equality at home and abroad. Our effort is about the search for peace and the courage of the peace journey. The state of peace that will be achieved at the end of this difficult but honorable path will also create our social health. Building social health, not only as an individual and a community, will also strengthen the system and make it healthy. That is why we say again: No one wins in war and no one loses in peace.

As shown by the initiatives between 1993-2015 in protecting and building peace, leader Abdullah Ocalan is the main interlocutor who can take the initiative and find solutions. Ocalan, who played a decisive role in the democratic and peaceful settlement of the Kurdish issue, has been deprived of all his constitutional and legal rights for 32 months, and his family and lawyer have not received any information about him. We stress the need to immediately lift this injustice and respect the rights of leader Abdullah Ocalan. We believe that Ocalan will make very important contributions to achieving peace, the establishment of which we believe is of historical importance for Turkey. From this standpoint, we call on the government to put an end to the practices of extrajudicial isolation and we call on the political and social opposition to promote peace policy. As recent developments show, “the worst peace is better than the fairest wars.”

T/ Satt.

ANHA