Co-President of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) Ahmet Türk said they realized that any move or bad treatment against Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), was in fact towards the Kurdish people.

“A delegation that includes DTP members as well should be sent to Imrali immediately. The Imrali prison system and the isolation that is being implemented should be ended. He should be provided with an environment where he can join the social and political life and this treatment designed to offend one’s dignity should be stopped.”

Today, the DTP held its group meeting in Diyarbakır instead of Ankara. Before the meeting that was to be closed to the press, Türk, other co-president Emine Ayna and Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir had a press meeting together with the other regional mayors.

Türk said the reason they were meeting in Diyarbakır was the allegations of physical violence against Abdullah Öcalan.

He also stated that the demonstrations in various provinces were put down by violence and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was in Diyarbakır yesterday, simply ignored this.

“The Kurdish problem is a political problem and therefore its solution can only be political. Even thinking that this problem can be solved by winning all the deputies and the mayors of the region and erasing the DTP from the region shows how denigrating and disrespectful the general approach towards the Kurds is.”

Türk says that their calls to solve this problem politically and live together in peace fall on deaf ears. He is afraid that the Turkish mosaic is heading towards disintegration and he blames the government for this. (EÜ/TB)