Melek Avci

 

ANKARA - While all eyes are on the ongoing meeting between the DEM Party delegation and İmralı, the last meeting with Abdullah Öcalan emphasised solution and isolation.

 

Following the Ministry of Justice's positive response to the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party's (DEM Party) application to meet PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, DEM Party Parliamentary Deputy Chairman Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan travelled to İmralı Island. While political contact continues on İmralı Island, the messages coming from there will be important in terms of the solution of the Kurdish problem and the Middle East issue.

 

Messages about a solution were conveyed

 

While the aggravated 43-month torture isolation continues, the last meeting with Abdullah Öcalan was held with his nephew DEM Party Şanlıurfa MP Ömer Öcalan as part of a ‘family visit’. During the visit, Abdullah Öcalan's first and most prominent message was ‘isolation is still continuing’ and he called for the creation of conditions for the democratic solution of the Kurdish question.  

 

Ömer Öcalan gave the details of the visit with Abdullah Öcalan for the first time in the budget talks on the floor of the Parliament, and Ömer Öcalan stated that his uncle had ‘solution proposals’.

 

‘We could have solved the problem in the 2000s’

 

Ömer Öcalan stated that Abdullah Öcalan had said "we could have solved the problem in 2000’ during the meeting held at the end of October, and that Abdullah Öcalan had further stated the following ‘I said it on the plane in 99. I said, ‘I will serve to solve the Kurdish-Turkish issue.’ I said it in 2000 and I say it now. But they took it to a different dimension. They said, ‘Apo is doing this to save himself."

 

What is meant by terms and conditions

 

Ömer Öcalan said that Abdullah Öcalan's expression of ‘terms and conditions’ was not for his own person and added: "He clearly stated that he would take the initiative to solve the problems. While talking about the terms and conditions in his message, he said, ‘I do not mean these terms and conditions for my own personal conditions’. He also made evaluations towards the preparation of the environment for the solution."

 

‘The most reasonable solution and suggestions’

 

Ömer Öcalan stated that Abdullah Öcalan made observations about the Middle East, Gaza and Israel, analysed the four parts of Kurdistan and closely followed the developments in Rojava during the meeting in İmralı: "His propositions were the most reasonable propositions. His analyses were the most reasonable analyses. Will the Turkish government come to this or not? Will they prepare this ground or not? The issue is somewhat knotted here. Mr Öcalan has analysed the millennia-old Kurdish and Turkish relations in a profound way and put forward a solution. We are in favour of solution and peace, and we will move forward with everyone who will contribute to this."

 

The meeting with İmralı is still ongoing. DEM Party officials are expected to make a statement after the meeting.