People of Tal Tamr urge Turkey to seize peace opportunity

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) announced in a statement issued on the 12th of this May the outcomes of its 12th conference, held between the 5th and 7th of the same month. The statement revealed a historic decision to end all activities carried out in the party’s name, along with the cessation of armed struggle, in response to the call for "peace and a democratic society" launched by leader Abdullah Ocalan from Imrali Prison on the 27th of last February. 

In this context, ANHA Agency gathered the opinions of several citizens in the city of Tal Tamr in Al-Jazira Canton, who expressed their welcome of the initiative. They called on the Turkish state to take serious steps toward peace and to end policies they view as based on marginalization and exclusion. 

The citizen Khalil Mahmoud Khalou, the resident of the city, stated that "the current Turkish state" is nothing but an extension of the Ottoman approach in dealing with non-Turkish peoples, particularly the Kurds. 

Khalou said, "Turkey exploits the call for peace to serve its own agendas and spreads rumors about the end of resistance, while continuing to commit massacres against the Kurdish people." 

He added that Turkish media policies do not reflect reality and that the gap between rhetoric and practice is clear. He stressed the need for serious engagement with leader Abdullah Ocalan’s call by recognizing the rights of the Kurdish people and releasing the leader. 

For her part, the citizen Bouza Al-Saleh emphasized that the Turkish state only talks about peace in times of crisis without taking any real steps in this direction. 

She added, "We women in NE Syria owe our liberation to the thought and philosophy of leader Abdullah Ocalan. This is why Turkey targets this ideology, seeing it as a threat to its dominance." 

Bouza Al-Saleh called on all women, especially in the areas of the Autonomous Administration to end the isolation imposed on leader Abdullah Ocalan and ensure his physical freedom. 

For his part, the citizen Mohammed Taher Al-Younis said that the Turkish state has always treated the Kurdish people as an enemy but has failed to eliminate them. 

Al-Younis explained that the balance of power has shifted and that the Kurdish people now have military forces and organizations capable of defending their rights. 

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ANHA