PKK leader urges Turkey’s Armenian community to back Kurds' demandsJanuary 30, 2014 - 17:45 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has penned a letter to the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, calling on the Armenian community to support the demands of Kurds in Turkey, Hurriyet Daily News reported. “The Kurdish people’s fight for freedom and the cure for the Armenian people’s sorrows have overlapped in the fight to [be able to] live in this land as citizens who share the same rights,” Abdullah Öcalan said in the letter, published Jan. 30. The letter came after the co-chair of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), Bese Hozat, controversially described the Armenian, Jewish and Greek lobbies as a “parallel state,” echoing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s accusations against the movement of the U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen (Cemaat). In the letter, Öcalan also accused anti-democratic powers “from inside and outside of” Turkey of hampering the resolution of the Kurdish issue. “Every time that we undertook peaceful paths, they have interrupted it with provocations,” Öcalan wrote. He cited “capital lobbies” and “structures such the Cemaat” as groups that sought to hamper the processes. He also said the killing of former Agos editor Hrant Dink was perpetrated with the same logic. “The true friend of the people Hrant Dink was massacred by the representatives of this dirty mentality, to serve the purpose that I have attempted to describe above,” Öcalan wrote, urging the Armenian community to stand against such networks. “I invite everyone to be more vigilant and consider matters more objectively against deep, open or parallel structures, and different structures as lobbies, or the Cemaat, which intend to frustrate our endeavor for the people,” he said. In the letter, the jailed PKK leader also urged the Turkish state to reckon with its past regarding the Armenian Genocide. “In our time, it is necessary that the whole world recognizes the Armenian people’s tragedy, paving the way for the mourning of their sorrows. It is inevitable that the Turkish Republic will approach the matter with such maturity and reckon with this bitter history,” Öcalan said. The letter comes amid growing uncertainty about the stalled Kurdish peace process. Öcalan had previously argued the graft probes launched on Dec. 17 were attempting to prevent the peace process launched over a year ago. Photo: Press TV Related links: Top stories Six total incidents have burned 19 old-growth trees. Friday night 8 trees were torched along the beautiful main entrance. The EU does not intend to conduct military exercises with Armenia, Lead Spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano says. Hikmet Hajiyev has said that there is no place for USAID operation in Azerbaijan any longer. A telephone conversation between Putin and Pashinyan before the CSTO summit is not planned, Peskov says. Partner news | Czech-Armenian military cooperation discussed in Yerevan A delegation led by the Director General for the Industrial Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic visited Armenia. Ex-Karabakh leader moved to solitary confinement cell in Baku, his son says David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Freedom House concerned by mounting reports of police violence in Armenia Freedom House urged Armenian authorities to investigate this pattern of excessive force and inhumane treatment. CSTO recognizes Armenia’s sovereign right to withdraw Tasmagambetov has said that if Armenia decides to leave the organization, “it will be the sovereign right of Armenia.” |