Leader of Terrorist Organization Threatens Government with more Violence

The leader of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, who is currently serving a life sentence on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara, has said there could be more violence and attacks from the separatist group if Parliament and the prime minister fail to convince the PKK that they have plans to implement democratic measures to address the Kurdish question. The minutes of a meeting between Öcalan and his lawyers that took place on Monday were posted online on the website of the Fırat news agency, a PKK-affiliated organization. According to Fırat’s report, Öcalan told his lawyers: “If they leave [the Kurdish] issue at an impasse, a democratic solution can’t be reached. If they don’t afford us the opportunity needed for us to lay down arms, the clashes will continue.”

“I will play my part if they let me. This doesn’t have anything to do with saving myself. If Parliament or the prime minister could make a call and tell us: ‘We don’t believe this can be solved with guns. We will solve this with democratic constitutional methods,’ we could solve it within a week.”

Öcalan also talked about last Thursday’s PKK attack on a battalion camping in a rural part of Silvan, Diyarbakır province, that left 13 Turkish soldiers dead. “Tomorrow, an attack 10 times worse than this could happen. The losses suffered in one day could be much higher. This could also happen in the cities, not only in rural areas. What are they going to do if the people of Diyarbakır walk to the prison where they keep those arrested, as people walked to the Bastille in Paris? That could happen. There is an accumulation of rage,” Öcalan threatened. This was in reference to a large number of Diyarbakır politicians affiliated with the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) who are currently under arrest as part of the trial of the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization for PKK-related groups.

The terrorist group’s leader also commented on a declaration of autonomy recently made by the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), a civil society organization not unrelated to the PKK which was founded by former members of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the BDP’s predecessor. The DTK declared the “democratic autonomy” of some provinces in the East and many in the Southeast of Turkey, the predominantly Kurdish parts of the country. “The important thing is to back this up in practice. It is not the declaration, but its realization, that matters. The declaration by itself does not have much meaning as long as it is not happening in practice. But efforts to make it a reality can be intensified.”

Öcalan also criticized the BDP for failing to “express itself clearly.” Öcalan said: “The BDP is being told to distance itself from violence. BDP members should express themselves articulately on this. ‘What does the BDP have to do with violence?’ they could ask. If the BDP had anything to do with violence, they would be armed already. The BDP has neither the power nor the position to represent the PKK or the KCK. There is no relationship of political representation here. They should say this openly. They should say, ‘We are not their [the PKK’s] political representatives, but we won’t take a hostile stance against them’.”
20 July 2011,
SOURCE:  TODAY’S ZAMAN