Well known Turkish journalist suggests house arrests for Ocalan
Well known Turkish journalist suggests house arrests for Ocalan
Turkey’s well known anchorman Mehmet Ali Birand suggested house arrest for Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, general amnesty for PKK members, resettlement out of Turkey for PKK leaders in his last article published on Vatan daily newspaper, yesterday. He had given the clue about these ideas in his article, which its English version was published in the Hürriyet Daily News’ web-site on June 23, 2011.
Here is some quotations from the article as follows;
“The YSK makes a decision before the elections and tells the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, candidates they are not eligible for candidacy. Afterwards, when reactions emerge, they create a weird excuse and revoke their decision. When you ask them, they say both decisions are correct according to laws currently valid. “Do not get angry at us, go and change the laws,” they say. I take a look and they are right.
Then I turn to the courts on the issue of releasing people who have won elections and the right to become a deputy while they were under arrest. Some judges make different decisions based on different grounds…”
“In the past, such laws have been made in the name of fighting terror; and we have all been so brainwashed we have confined ourselves. We have woven a cobweb and have tied ourselves into the web. We have fallen into the trap with our own efforts…”
“We should see this fact and roll up our sleeves. We should know the chant, “This is Turkey, there is no way out of here!” does not get us anywhere. Let us not make Turkey hell for our Kurdish origin citizens. If we do this, they will not stay idle either…”
“ ..the BDP should enter parliament and should not stir up the streets. Not anybody but Abdullah Öcalan is able to calm down the reaction in the BDP. He should show the road of commonsense to them in this issue…”
“Now, I am asking all of my readers. Which political leader can solve the Kurdish issue and make the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, come down from the mountains? Let us not fool each other. More importantly, let us leave aside the pro-government and pro-opposition accusations and look for a serious solution.
Who do you think, anybody but Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, with a 50 percent victory in the elections, can handle this burden? Who, but Erdoðan can persuade this society to agree to sacrifices in order to make the PKK come down from the mountains? Who can, but Erdoðan, demonstrates such courage?..”
“The Kurdish issue that is being spoken in the region is the question of an amnesty for the PKK, Öcalan’s upgrading to a house arrest, the identity problem, education in mother tongue and being allowed to self-govern…”
“Erdoðan will first handle the constitution and simultaneously the Kurdish issue. There is no other way out of this. What is expected now of the prime minister is for him to identify the real Kurdish problem and act immediately. If he cannot succeed with this in the next term, Turkey will again struggle with terrorism, blood will be shed and its future will be blocked…”
This article was published on the Hürriyet Daily News’ web-site on June 23, 2011.
Here is some quotations from the article as follows;
“The YSK makes a decision before the elections and tells the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, candidates they are not eligible for candidacy. Afterwards, when reactions emerge, they create a weird excuse and revoke their decision. When you ask them, they say both decisions are correct according to laws currently valid. “Do not get angry at us, go and change the laws,” they say. I take a look and they are right.
Then I turn to the courts on the issue of releasing people who have won elections and the right to become a deputy while they were under arrest. Some judges make different decisions based on different grounds…”
“In the past, such laws have been made in the name of fighting terror; and we have all been so brainwashed we have confined ourselves. We have woven a cobweb and have tied ourselves into the web. We have fallen into the trap with our own efforts…”
“We should see this fact and roll up our sleeves. We should know the chant, “This is Turkey, there is no way out of here!” does not get us anywhere. Let us not make Turkey hell for our Kurdish origin citizens. If we do this, they will not stay idle either…”
“ ..the BDP should enter parliament and should not stir up the streets. Not anybody but Abdullah Öcalan is able to calm down the reaction in the BDP. He should show the road of commonsense to them in this issue…”
“Now, I am asking all of my readers. Which political leader can solve the Kurdish issue and make the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, come down from the mountains? Let us not fool each other. More importantly, let us leave aside the pro-government and pro-opposition accusations and look for a serious solution.
Who do you think, anybody but Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, with a 50 percent victory in the elections, can handle this burden? Who, but Erdoðan can persuade this society to agree to sacrifices in order to make the PKK come down from the mountains? Who can, but Erdoðan, demonstrates such courage?..”
“The Kurdish issue that is being spoken in the region is the question of an amnesty for the PKK, Öcalan’s upgrading to a house arrest, the identity problem, education in mother tongue and being allowed to self-govern…”
“Erdoðan will first handle the constitution and simultaneously the Kurdish issue. There is no other way out of this. What is expected now of the prime minister is for him to identify the real Kurdish problem and act immediately. If he cannot succeed with this in the next term, Turkey will again struggle with terrorism, blood will be shed and its future will be blocked…”
This article was published on the Hürriyet Daily News’ web-site on June 23, 2011.
