ANKARA - Evaluating the Kurdish Freedom Movement's decision to withdraw its forces in Turkey as "crossing a strategic threshold in the peace process", journalist Engin Yurtsever said: "Steps are constantly being taken by the Kurdish side, but the state is still not taking the necessary steps."

 

With their historic statement, the Kurdish Freedom Movement once again showed that they are behind Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan's call for Peace and Democratic Society. 

 

In the statement, it was emphasised that the Freedom Movement has taken steps to concretise the will for peace, democracy and common life. It was also stated that the state and the government should take legal and political approaches without delay to put these steps into practice. 

 

Speaking to our agency about the statement and the decision of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, journalist Engin Yurtsever said that the process has entered a "new political phase".

 

Referring to the allegations of "North was left behind" in some circles, Yurtsever said: "The guerrillas of the Kurdistan Freedom Movement are organised in every inch of Kurdistan. Such evaluations are baseless. Just as in the past they withdrew to other areas due to circumstances, today they have shown that they have the mobility to return to the places they left when needed."

 

'ONE-SIDED PROCESS WEAKENS PEACE'

 

Yurtsever described as "political insincerity" the fact that the Turkish state continues to define the process with the title "Terror Free Turkey" and added: "The state's confinement of the process to a security-orientated ground is the biggest obstacle to the will for peace and democratic solution. Such historical processes, as in other countries, are reciprocal. However, this reciprocation is continuously made by the Kurdish Freedom Movement." 

 

According to Yurtsever, the steps Turkey will take towards democratisation will both direct economic resources towards the peoples and pave the way for an end to the policies of denial that have lasted for more than a century.

 

'ÖCALAN'S FREEDOM IS INEVITABLE'

 

Yurtsever stated that Abdullah Öcalan's physical freedom must be ensured in order for the peace process to become permanent, and listed the steps to be taken in order for the process to settle in a democratic framework as follows:

 

"* Mr Öcalan's physical freedom and the provision of living conditions to be determined by him,

 

*Release of all political prisoners by removing them from prisoner status,

 

*Immediate implementation of the necessary legal and constitutional arrangements,

 

*Turkey's withdrawal from military bases across the border,

 

* Legalisation of the understanding of self-government as a requirement of democratic life."

 

'THE WILL FOR PEACE, DEMOCRACY AND COMMON LIFE'

 

Finally, Yurtsever drew attention to the three basic principles (peace, democracy and the will to live together) that Öcalan and the Kurdish Freedom Movement have emphasised since the beginning of the process. He concluded: “This is a new vision of life not only for the Kurdish people but for all the peoples in Turkey. The future of the process depends on the state recognising and institutionalising this will." 

 

MA / Firat Can Arslan