KCK prolongs cease-fire until next year’s elections

?SMAIL AVCI 
DIYARBAKIR
The Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), the urban arm of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has announced that they will be prolonging a unilateral cease-fire that ends on Oct. 31 until the 2011 general elections. The KCK said that if the Turkish state also stands by the cease-fire, it could turn into a permanent truce.
The KCK’s statement was posted yesterday on the website of a news agency affiliated with the group. The KCK said that Turkey has entered a crucial phase to solve the Kurdish question, defending that five steps were needed for a truly democratic solution and lasting peace. These are, the KCK said, “Ending military and political operations [against the PKK], release of Kurdish politicians under arrest, allowing PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan to actively participate in the process and bring the currently ongoing dialogue up to the level of full negotiations, the establishment of a constitution and a fact-finding commission to help the process unwind and the abolishment of the country’s ten percent election threshold for parliamentary representation of political parties.”
The announcement comes a day after a suicide bombing in Istanbul wounded 32 people, half of them police. The police are still investigating the attack but there have been no official announcement about who was responsible for the attack. No one has claimed responsibility.
In related developments, co-chairwoman of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) and a former member of the now-defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP) Aysel Tu?luk yesterday went to the ?mral? Island, where PKK chief Öcalan is being held, to talk to him in her capacity as his lawyer. Öcalan’s other lawyers Mehmet Sab?rta?, Sebahattin Kaya and ?brahim Bilmez accompanied Tu?luk. The meeting, which was still underway as Today’s Zaman went to print, is crucial in the process. Tu?luk had intended to go last week, but her trip to the island was canceled due to adverse whether conditions.

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