The Kurdish Movement, that is pressuring the Turkish state for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish question, is demanding the formation of a Truth Commission under the auspices of parliament as a means to achieve a dignified peace between the Kurds and the Turks.

The democratic resolution process that started in March 2013 with the initiative taken by the Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan has taken a new turn with the joint declaration that the Turkish government and the HDP delegation made in February this year at the Dolmabahce Palace.

Öcalan listed 10 articles in the joint declaration, including a new constitution ensuring the social, cultural and identity demands of the Kurds as well as autonomy for the Kurdish provinces.

Öcalan called on the PKK in his message read out at Newroz in Amed to hold a congress provided that a consensus is reached on principles. Öcalan stressed in his message the necessity of setting up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission: “I hope that it is possible to come to a principled agreement in a short time regarding a truth and reconciliation commission composed of parliamentary members and the monitoring council, in order to make this congress successful. With this congress a new period begins.”

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions have been set up in different parts of the world following conflict in order to reach a just and dignified peace. The most striking example of this took place in South Africa.

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions are defined as adjudicating committees or commissions without judicial authority set up and rendered effective after political crises, dictatorships or periods of political repression, acting in a spirit of national reconciliation.

Their concrete practice consists of listening to testimonies of victims, restoring the dignity of people exposed to violence or repression, and summoning those who hold the responsibility for crimes to confess their guilt and to offer their remorse in front of the families.

Up until now, in 25 countries in the world such commissions have been set up, including South Africa, many countries in Latin America and in East Timor and Tunisia.

In South Africa the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in 1995 led by Nelson Mandela. The commission was assigned to identify all human rights violations that had taken place in the apartheid era that started in 1948 and especially after the Sharpeville massacre perpetrated in 1960. The commission worked not only to identify political crimes and the violations of human rights carried out by the government, but also to identify the violations and crimes committed by the national liberation movements.

In the Ivory Coast, after the crisis of 2010-2011, the president Alassane Ouattara announced that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up the day his rival Laurent Gbagbo was arrested on 11 April 2011. The commission, comprising 11 persons, was assigned to investigate the violent events that took place before the elections. After three years, the commission has yet to come up with fruitful results.

In Peru, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up to prepare a report on the armed conflict that took place in the years between 1980 and 2000. The commission, which was set up in 2001, collected 16 thousand 985 testimonies and carrying out 21 people’s courts. 9,500 people followed these trials. The final report was announced in 2003 in the presence of the president of the country.

In Togo, violent events, varying in intensity and form, took place between 1958 and 2005, reaching their climax with the death of the president Gnassingbé Eyadema and during the elections in 2005. Under these conditions, the socio-political actors in Togo signed a political agreement for the formation of a truth, justice and reconciliation commission in 2006. The commission was set up in February 2009 by a presidential decree.

In recent times, a Truth and Dignity Commission was set up on 24 December 2013 in Tunisia as a political organ, assigned to identify human rights violations and to arrange the indemnification to the victims. The commission was also authorized to review all legal dossiers between 1995 and 2013. The Truth and Dignity Commission in Tunisia has recorded over 8 thousand files up to March 2015.