A meeting demanding peace will take place in Kadıköy at 12:00 on June 1. Those who will take part in the meeting will start gathering in front of the Shopping Center Tepe Nautilus.

Single banner, single message

Murat Çelikkan, the head of the preparation committee, with whom Bianet met, emphasizes that there will be a single banner and a single message. He says “we want a democratic solution for the Kurdish problem. We do not want death, but solution.”

The lollipop shaped banners and hats with this message on them will be passed out at the meeting place.

Çelikkan says that Kurdish and Turkish songs will be sung and a few speeches will be given.

We are at the meeting because…

Çelikkan had told Bianet previously that the meeting’s goal was to present a peaceful alternative to the policies of violence the ruling party and the military have been embracing and implementing so far:

“We are organizing this meeting to say enough to the deaths that are presented as part of the solution. We believe that the Kurdish problem is not an issue of security and law and order, it has political, social, economic and psychological dimensions. Approaching this problem with a democratic solution may open the way to the peace and democracy in Turkey that has been kept closed down deliberately.

Prof. Dr. Büşra Ersanlı, a member of the committee, had made the following comment as well:

“I decided to take part in this meeting because for a long time I have been of the opinion that the Kurdish people have been exposed to a pervasive and strong discrimination.” (TK/GG)