Demirtaş to Erdoğan: ‘Who are you to give rights like charity?’

KT News:

Selahattin Demirtaş

Selahattin Demirtaş

Selahattin Demirtaş, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-chairperson,  yesterday accused the AKP government of effectively halting the peace process between Kurds and the Turkish state. At a press conference in Amed, reported by bianet, he criticized as inadequate the ‘democratisation package’ announced recently by prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.  “The package has nothing to do with the process” he said. “There is no dialogue. The AKP government de facto ended the dialogue process.”

“In the eyes of the public, the government has ended negotiation and dialogue process. These reforms were made to end negotiations. No stakeholders – Kurds or Alevis or NGOs – were asked about their opinions.  If you didn’t have courage, why did you start negotiation in the first place?”

Demirtaş focussed on Erdogan’s refusal to accept the right of all Kurds to education in their own language:

“It is not democratization when education in mother tongue is only possible in private schools. 80 percent of Kurdish people are poor. How will they go to private schools? You’ve got schools but we don’t.

“You will call it equal citizenship when you admit Kurdish kids to your private schools? Nobody will buy this (any) more.

“It is a mother-born right. Are you trying to give this piece by piece? What is the current obstacle against education in mother tongue? Why not do it? Because the PM wants to hold Kurdish people’s rights in his hands. He wants them to depend on them.

“Who are you to give rights like charity? You are supposed to return all the rights that you ripped off”.

The jailed PKK  leader  Abdullah Öcalan is expected to make a statement on October 15th about the government’s package and its implication for the peace process. According to Firat he has already stated that: “The package has had no relevance to Kurds … and it leaves the Kurdish issue out of the scope”.

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