KURDISH QUESTION

The ceasefire of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) will expire on coming Sunday (31 October). Meanwhile, imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is cannot receive any visitors. His lawyers and Kurdish politician Ayşe Tuğluk were not permitted to meet Öcalan on Imralı Island (Sea of Marmara) this week.

According to the Fırat News Agency (ANF), Tuğluk and Öcalan's lawyers were not allowed to take the boat to the prison island on Wednesday (27 October) because of "windy weather conditions on the Sea of Marmara". The other possibility to see Öcalan would have been on 29 October which was denied since the date coincides with a public holiday.

ANF reported that Tuğluk and the lawyers will apply for another meeting on 1 November.

Also last week's meeting failed because the lawyers could not make it to the island.

The PKK had extended the ceasefire for one more month in the end of September until 31 October.

In the last meeting with his lawyers, Öcalan declared that he would wait till 31 October regarding a solution for the Kurdish question and himself functioning as a negotiator. He had said that he would not intervene any further if nothing should happen until then. "We will wait until 31 October and after that I will be out. I will not interfere afterwards even if I was going to be hung. The process will be advanced by the KCK [Democratic Confederation of Kurdistan] then, they will decide on their own", Öcalan had announced.

He had said that the ceasefire would be terminated on 31 October in case the government would not take any of the expected steps, foremost "stopping the military operations".

Tuğluk: If the state takes a step, Öcalan will respond manyfold

Tuğluk said in an interview with bianet before the visit to Imralı Island was cancelled, "The solution process has to be re-defined. Öcalan is the one who can facilitate this issue the most. If the government just makes a single trustworthy step, Öcalan will give a manyfold positive response".

Tuğluk talked to Öcalan on 27 September together with Kurdish politician Ahmet Türk. Both Tuğluk and Türk were co-chairs of the banned pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). After their meeting with Öcalan, it was announced to extend the ceasefire for another month.

Tuğluk indicated, "This is a sensitive process. There are only a few days left till the end of the ceasefire. We think our responsibility requires going to the island.

"It is the biggest mistake of the government to expect to resolve the Kurdish question with a unilateral solution by leaving out the PKK and Öcalan. A people that has struggled 40 years for a solution wants to be part of the solution process", Tuğluk stated. (TK/BT/VK)