The two-day workshop on National Unity organised by the Kurdistan Islamic Movement (AZADÎ), Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Revolutionary Democratic Kurdish Association (DDKD), Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Human and Freedom Party (PİA), Communist Party of Kurdistan (KKP), Kurdistan Democratic Platform (PDK), Democratic Party of Kurdistan-Turkey (PDK-T) and the Azadî Party, kicked off in Amed today.

The workshop, which is taking place in a hotel in Sur, sees the participation, among others, of DTK Co-chair Leyla Güven, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) co-chairs Saliha Aydeniz and Keskin Bayındır, People's Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Sezai Temelli, Free Women's Movement (TJA ) activists, Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk, the Revolutionary Democratic Kurdish Society (DDKD), Human and Freedom Party (PIE), Communist Party of Kurdistan (RDP), the Kurdish Democratic Platform-North (PDK-Bakur), Kurdistan Democratic Party in Turkey (PDK- T) and representatives of the Azadi Party and opinion leaders and representatives of a large number of civil society organizations.

Adbulhey Okumuş from DDKD stated that the Kurdish people have missed the opportunity of unity throughout the history and added: "Kurds are on the world's agenda. However, it often comes on the agendan for negative reasons. This time we need to take this opportunity. Numerous meetings and talks were held. We came together in this workshop to set a road map for the common interests of the Kurdish people. After that, our meetings will be held in three languages. We will prefer Kurdish as much as we can."

Common Text

The workshop started with the reading of the common text prepared in two dialects of Kurdish and Turkish. 

What's on the program of the workshop

The first item on the agenda of the workshop will seek an answer to the question whether a “National Council”, a “Congress” or “Democratic Front” should be developed for the establishment of a permanent national alliance model.

The name, program and functioning of the model will be determined after an evaluation of the experiences of TEVKURD, DTK, South Kurdistan parties, TEV-DEM, ENKS and other national unity models in the world.

The second item of the workshop will discuss how to overcome problems and obstacles for the achievement of cooperation on national values on the path to a lasting national alliance.

The third item will be the determination of a roadmap for the Kurdistan National Alliance against the increasing attacks on the achievements of the Kurds.

Background

In Amed (Diyarbakir) several Kurdish parties and civil society organisations came together in December to develop a common position on the attacks of the Erdoğan regime. The representatives adopted a declaration calling for the "unity of the Kurdish people against the forces of oppression and repression".