Turkey’s main opposition CHP leader kicks off southeast visit

Turkey’s main opposition CHP leader Özgür Özel has started his visit to eastern and southeastern provinces with Diyarbakır. Özel’s main agenda will be the Kurdish issue amidst the Turkish government’s seeming reconciliation efforts with the Kurds. “The state cannot decide whether Kurds have a problem or not. Kurds have problems until Kurds say 'there is a problem',” he said in one of his meetings.

Wednesday October 23 2024 05:53 pm

Duvar English

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel on Oct. 22 kicked off his visits to six eastern and southeastern provinces.

Having the Kurdish issue as the main agenda, Özel will visit Diyarbakır, Batman, Mardin, Şırnak, Hakkari, and Van provinces in the coming days.

On Oct. 22, he landed in the southeastern Diyarbakır province and was welcomed with Kurdish songs.

On Oct. 23 morning, he held a meeting with civil society organizations.

Commenting on MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli’s call to jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to speak at the parliament to disband the PKK, Özel said, “You can’t say there is no Kurdish problem in Turkey. You ignore the problem of 26 million Kurds in Turkey. The Kurdish problem exists precisely here. The state cannot decide whether Kurds have a problem or not. Kurds have problems until Kurds say 'there is a problem'. Saying 'someone does not have a problem' is authoritarianism. The problem will not be solved by one person speaking in parliament.”

“Yesterday I said 'I promise a state to the Kurds'. I propose that the Kurds become the owners of the state of the Republic of Turkey, where they feel equal, non-discriminatory, equal citizenship to the bone, where they feel themselves fully a member of the state of the Republic of Turkey,” he added.

After this meeting, he commemorated the murdered bar head Tahir Elçi. Tahir Elçi, who was then head of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, was killed in broad daylight on Nov. 28, 2015, while speaking to the media to call for an end to the ongoing conflict between Turkish security forces and the PKK.

At the site of the murder, Özel said, “We will pursue the murder until all aspects are uncovered.”

In his visit to the Sur district on the same day, a neighborhood head (“mukhtar”) gave Özel a list of 524 “poor people.”

“An (economic) situation where 524 people apply to a mukhtar. The poverty list. If this process continues like this, we will really be in a lot of trouble. I have a lot more to say, but I am not ashamed to say it. As the CHP leader, I ask you to help us,” the mukhtar Ali Kızgın told Özel.

Kızgın also asked Özel how was Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed Kurdish politician whom Özel visited on Oct. 21.

“It was as if he hadn't been there for eight years, as if he had entered (the prison) yesterday and would leave tomorrow. He is in good health and is constantly reading, working, researching, and learning,” Özel said.

Özel also visited Diyarbakır's second-tier football club Amedspor.

Özel on Oct. 23 canceled his further visits after the attack on the headquarters of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAŞ) in the capital Ankara.