As a member of the Central Committee of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Helin Ümit spoke on the debate about a solution to the Kurdish question and the role of Abdullah Öcalan in a program on Medya Haber TV.

The PKK founder and Kurdish leader, who has been imprisoned in Turkey for over 25 years, was able to speak to DEM Party Urfa MP Ömer Öcalan on 23 October after 43 months of strict isolation on the prison island of Imrali. The visit was officially permitted as part of the right to contact family members: the DEM politician is Abdullah Öcalan's nephew. As Ömer Öcalan announced after the visit, Abdullah Öcalan said that isolation continues and that he would be able to move the conflict from the level of violence to a political and legal level if the necessary conditions were in place.

Positioning of the Kurdish freedom movement

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) then declared that the Kurdish freedom movement would adhere to all proposals for a solution put forward by Öcalan and act accordingly. A just and lasting peace in Turkey can only be achieved through a democratic solution to the Kurdish question with Öcalan as a negotiating partner, said the KCK. The democratization of Turkey also depends on this. A dialogue process requires the willingness of the Turkish state to create free and safe conditions for Abdullah Öcalan.

False claims from government circles

Despite this clear position of the Kurdish freedom movement, Turkish government circles and state-affiliated media are claiming that the PKK is not listening to Öcalan. Helin Ümit contradicted this statement in the TV program broadcast on Tuesday. She stressed that Ömer Öcalan's visit to the prison island of Imrali was fought for by the Kurdish people. MHP chair Devlet Bahçeli, who in October surprisingly demanded that Abdullah Öcalan should declare the dissolution of the PKK in parliament in Ankara, is behaving ambivalently.

"Machines of special warfare"

"There is a mental dispute at the moment," said Helin Ümit. "It is claimed that Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] made a proposal that the PKK rejected. Our people know it anyway, but I'm saying it again here for the Turkish public and everyone who doesn't know us that well. The PKK hasn't received anything. We don't have anything to discuss or respond to. All statements and insinuations that something was said that the PKK did not accept are machinations of special warfare."

Helin Ümit appealed to the public to keep a close eye on the island prison Imrali and Abdullah Öcalan and to fight for the truth. Otherwise, the atmosphere will be poisoned, and an unstable environment will arise.