People in Van (Wan) commented about the meeting that Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan had with his nephew and DEM Party Urfa MP Ömer Öcalan after 44 months of incommunicado status and the statements made by the government. The citizens said that brotherhood must be based on equal rights.

Mehmet Sevinç, who works as a hairdresser in Van, pointed out that the attacks on Rojava took place the day after the statements of MHP chair Devlet Bahçeli, and added: "What do the attacks on Rojava mean? If peace is mentioned, the interlocutor is Abdullah Öcalan. Go and talk to him. If you do not want peace, do not distract society with these statements. If the aim is peace, what do the operations carried out in Iraq and Rojava mean? We have difficulty understanding these. Of course, we want peace. A Kurdish-Turkish brotherhood should be established. These problems should be eliminated, and we should live in prosperity, peace, equality and brotherly. I say that all discrimination should be eliminated and there should be peace."

Abdullah Öcalan is the interlocutor

Restaurant manager Hüseyin Akdağ said: "In order for the 50-year war in Turkey to evolve into peace, interlocutors need to be discussed. So, who is the interlocutor? The interlocutor is clear; the interlocutor is Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. Mr. Abdullah Öcalan’s speech and the lifting of isolation will be a huge step. This issue should be discussed on the floor of Parliament. They talk about peace, but an operation will be carried out in Rojava; this will not serve peace, but war. We have been saying this for years, but we are misunderstood."

"Authorities should sit down, talk and solve this question"

Zeki Oruk, who runs a shoe store, also stated that he wanted the conflict to be solved through dialogue and negotiation, and added the following: "This is for the benefit of the whole society. I call on the authorities: Sit down, talk and solve this question. The addressee of the solution is Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. If you leave it until tomorrow, it will become even more inextricable. If this problem had been solved 20 years ago, it would not have reached this point today. If it is not solved today, unsolvable situations will arise in 10 years. This problem hurts everyone; it directly affects everyone's life from the West to the East, down to the last village. There are budgets allocated for war and large amounts of money are spent. If this money had not been spent on war, the economy, health and education would not be this bad today. It is time to solve this problem. The solution to this problem should not be sacrificed to simple political calculations."