Demirta?: AKP does not want peace

Referring to the arrangements on mother tongue – which includes only the provision of mother tongue education in private schools – Demirta? said that; “The Kurdish people do not have private schools to send their children to for education, with 80 percent of Kurds remaining below the poverty line. It is you who have private schools”, he added referring to AKP well off people. He underlined that the government couldn’t grant rights – neither mother tongue education nor wearing headscarf – allowed to be enjoyed only in private areas.

“This package is completely grounded on ending the negotiations”, BDP co-chair underlined and commented the so-called “democratisation package” as “an imposition of a mindset that consulted with neither Kurds nor Alevis while preparing it. If it was not your intention to negotiate, then why did you roll your sleeves up?”, he asked, addressing his question to the government.

Demirta? remarked that they supported the resolution process because they believed peoples in Turkey deserved peace. However – he said – “the AKP government has wasted 80 percent of our support to the process for its own needs and this is not something we are witnessing it doing for the first time”.

Reminding that Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan had warned the state delegation numerous times before the announcement of the package, Demirta? said the package “has failed to answer the expectations for the advancement of dialogue and revealed the government’s attitude that takes no notice of its interlocutor. The package is nothing other than the manifestation of the AKP’s true face”, he added.

Referring to the allowance of headscarf in public sphere and the removal of the Turkish national oath ceremony at primary schools, Demirta? said that; “These are not solutions produced by the AKP government for there has been no problems concerning these issues for the last 3-4 years, with our children already not swearing the Turkish oath and women already wearing headscarf in public institutions. People have already come up with a solution to these problems but the government is pretending to show this as its own achievement”.

Referring to the three proposals Erdo?an put forward concerning the election threshold, Demirta? defended that the threshold should totally be removed for the  achievement of democracy. He criticized the government for taking advantage of the votes of women wearing headscarf, and added that the government should have no concerns or hesitations over removing the threshold while it already takes 50 percent of the votes in the country.

“This package introduces nothing new. All our achievements have been succeeded thanks to the struggle we are giving”, he underlined and noted that Kurds have made all kinds of sacrifice to ensure the ending of deaths of Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish security forces.

Demirta? also denied rumors that he will submit his resignation after the local elections, adding that the party had no extraordinary congress on the agenda till the elections.

BDP co-chair added that their party has applied to Turkish Ministry of Justice for a visit to Öcalan on ?mral? island and is waiting for the Ministry’s answer.

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