Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş spoke to reporters about the visit Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani paid to the main Kurdish city Amed/Diyarbakır last weekend.

Demirtaş said the Amed visit gave no messages concerning the language, identity and self governance of Kurds, and reminded that all the PM said was that “mountains and jails shall be emptied”. BDP co-chair underlined that “It seems this visit took place because of the deadlock Turkey is facing today in relation with the regional developments, and with an intention to overcome the obstacles it is facing in its foreign policy.

Turkey's harsh attitude against Rojava which aims to suppress the achievements of the people there has once again been strengthened during the Diyarbakır visit. They maybe gave warm messages to the Kurdish people but what we want to see is the practice of concrete steps serving permanent peace”.

Demirtaş noted that the people of Diyarbakır just watched the happenings, without feeling any passion or excitement, and do not consider Prime Minister's messages to be up to clearing the way for the advancement of the process.

Answering questions on the expected involvement of new delegations and journalists to the BDP-HDP delegation paying visits to Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı prison, Demirtaş said the government should take steps to ensure Öcalan's contact with civil delegations and journalists in addition to the present political delegation, as is demanded by Öcalan himself and is supported by the BDP as well.

“This is a delayed step that would not go against the laws. I expect to witness such a development in the coming weeks. This could be a delegation of wise people, individuals and maybe journalists after that. Should this delegation directly convey Mr. Öcalan's messages to the public, this step would not only contribute to the process but it could also help the process to overcome the deadlock it is facing now”.