The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said that it would embark on a Türkiye tour this month to explain to the people in every corner of the country the process of the terror-free initiative.
DEM Party deputies will start their tour on May 16, sources from the party told A Haber, where they would underline unity.
“This process has neither a winner nor a loser. The winner will be Türkiye. Guns will be silenced. A problem of 40 years will be a thing of the past. In our visits, we will elaborate on the process and underline the joint nation,” the sources said.
The DEM Party’s words come after the PKK on Monday announced it would lay down arms and dissolve itself after decades of waging a war of terrorism against the Turkish state. After years of military operations to eradicate the group, Türkiye initiated a “reconciliation process” previously in 2013 in a bid to prevent the PKK from justifying its actions. The process saw the reinstatement of the rights of the Kurdish community, but it ultimately collapsed when the PKK resumed its terror attacks after a brief lull. The PKK’s latest announcement of dissolution was hailed by parties within the country as well as several international actors.
DEM Party co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan on Tuesday said: “This decision is a chance for a democratic solution, it brought together an important opportunity for peace. May 12 is not a page of a calendar in Türkiye anymore, it will make history as the starting day of alleviating the big burdens of the past.”
“The transition led by Öcalan may be one of the most groundbreaking incidents of both Türkiye’s history as well as Kurdish political history. The struggle that was led paying big prices, is now leaving its place to the solution of the problem and the establishment of a democratic society,” Bakırhan said. “This decision is at the same time a call to enlarge the idea of a common nation, a peaceful solution, as well as creating a democratic basis in Turkish-Kurdish relations.”
He added that the process must now be strengthened with the necessary legal and political regulations.
The DEM Party is a spiritual successor to the now-defunct Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP), whose co-chairs were imprisoned for PKK propaganda as well as inciting the deadly 2014 pro-PKK riots across Türkiye. The party became a part of the terror-free Türkiye initiative after its leaders were approached by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, who launched the initiative as an alternative way to end PKK terrorism last year. The party later held an extraordinary meeting of its administrative committee.