Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan’s February 27 “Call for Peace and Democratic Society” marked the beginning of a new phase in Turkey. During this period, the Kurdish Freedom Movement took important steps to advance the process of democratization in the country.
At the same time, the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) carried out public meetings and home visits in order to explain the process both to the people and to their own grassroots base.
Mevlüt Aykoç, Co-spokesperson of DBP for the Marmara Region, spoke to ANF about the work they are conducting in the Marmara region within the framework of the new process and shared his impressions from the public meetings.
Public participation ensured after the meetings
The DBP held over a hundred public meetings across the Marmara region, said Mevlüt Aykoç, noting that these gatherings helped the people better understand the process and encouraged them to take part in it.
“These meetings have great significance. In these gatherings, our aim was both to inform our base about the process and to answer the questions they had regarding it. Of course, it is not easy to explain the process to people all at once and to ensure their immediate understanding. However, with each gathering, our base gained a clearer understanding of the process, and afterwards, they began to contribute to it. This is both important and positive,” he stated.
People want the process to be put on a legal footing
According to Aykoç’s assessment of the meetings, the people’s priority is clear: they want the process to be secured within a legal framework. He explained: “Our people, those who attended the meetings, have clear expectations. First and foremost, there is an urgent demand for legal regulations regarding our friends in prison. Beyond that, a process of laying down arms has begun. If arms are to be relinquished, there must be legal arrangements enabling the guerrillas who disarm to continue their lives in this country.
At the same time, our demand for Kurdish to become both an official and an educational language is explicit and clear. Similarly, there are demands for the legal recognition of Kurdish status.’’
He added: ‘‘The current constitution is shaped around the understanding of ‘one language, one state, one flag.’ In the coming period, our people expect a constitution that allows all communities to express themselves freely. There are also demands concerning labor rights and ecological issues. Women are being murdered. In short, the fundamental expectation of our people is that everyone can freely express themselves. This is what they demand.”
Education and organization are our foundation
Mevlüt Aykoç underlined that education and organization are central to their work, and their priority is to provide training to their own cadres regarding the process. He concluded: “The DBP has this particular aspect: we are a party that fundamentally prioritizes education and organization. Other forms of our work are carried out within the DEM Party, of which we are a component.
In general, our educational activities are continuous, and we aim to reach a very wide audience. Above all, we prioritize reaching the patriotic base. Since the DBP is always engaged in a constant process of education, we are a structure that discusses each stage with our own base. Therefore, we can say that the DBP base is the group closest to understanding the process. We will intensify our work even further in this period.”
Source: ANF News
