Independent daily Newspaper

 Home

 Old Archive RSS Feed    Advertise

About

Music 

 Kurdish PKK leader: We will not withdraw our autonomy demand 

 News
  Kurd Net does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news information on this page

 


Kurdish PKK leader: We will not withdraw our autonomy demand  12.1.2011  

Share |






January 12, 2011

QANDIL MOUNTAINS, Turkey-Iraqi Kurdistan frontier, — The acting leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the President of the KCK's Executive Council Murat Karayilan says they will not withdraw their demand for Democratic Autonomy under any circumstances.

Speaking to ANF Turkish Service Karayilan said the "Democratic Autonomy" proposal of Kurdish organizations can be debated and reformed but there is no way that Kurdish people will step back and accept another solution.

Karayilan underlined the fact that Democratic Autonomy Project does not include maximum demands for Kurdish people and is an acceptable solution project for Kurdish people.

"If you don't want to assimilate us, if you want to protect Kurdish language and culture you should recognise a separate statue (for Kurdish people)" Karayilan said.             

Murad Karayilan, acting leader of the PKK, speaks during a news conference at Qandil mountains near the Iraqi-Turkish border. Sep 30, 2010 Photo: Reuters
Karayilan said Kurdish Question can not be solved with the "individual rights" perspective. "Collective rights of Kurdish people must be recognised" he added.

"Nobody offered us any solution project for Kurdish Question until now. Why? Because they don't want to solve the problem. They didn't give up assimilation politics. They should have a project and perspective"

Underlining Turkey's need for a constitutional reform Karayilan said the centralized government practice must be abandoned and it's not possible to govern the country from Ankara.

Karayilan also said that Democratic Autonomy Project will help democratization of the Turkish Republic and the state actors.

He insisted that Kurds don't demand a separate state but they want to live in a democratic state where Kurds, Turks and other ethnic groups can enjoy their cultural rights.

Karayilan harshly criticized the Turkish government, especially Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his remarks which defends Turkey's official "one language, one nation, one flag and one homeland".

He said the move for Democratic Autonomy showed the real face of Erdogan, who says he favors rights of Kurdish people.

Speaking on the upcoming trial of the Kurdish politicians in Diyarbakir, Karayilan said the judges should let the defendants make their defense speeches in Kurdish.

Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish state in the south east of the country.

But now its aim is the creation an autonomous region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who constitute the greatest minority in Turkey, numbering more than 20 million.

PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey, reducing pressure on the detained PKK president, stopping military action against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution.

PKK demanded to stop military and political operations and to release Kurdish politicians who are unjustly detained. The organization also requested to enable imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's active participation in the process.

Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations.

The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union's terror list.
  

Copyright, respective author or news agency, firatnews.com | ekurd.net | Agencies

Top

  Kurd Net does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news information on this page

 
 

Copyright © 1998-2015 Kurd Net® . All rights reserved  Ekurd.net
All documents and images on this website are copyrighted and may not be used without the express
permission of the copyright holder.