ISTANBUL - Stating that they showed the address of the correct addressee with the "Call to Peace" declaration, Politician Ahmet Faruk Ünsal said: "The government should open the gates of Imrali."

 

78 people, including journalists, politicians, academics, intellectuals and writers, came together in Istanbul on October 28 for a democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish question and announced to the public the declaration titled "Call for Peace", of which they were signatories. In the statement, it was emphasized that "Our effort is about seeking peace and the courage to be a peace traveler" and called for the end of the isolation imposed on PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan and for the democratic solution of the Kurdish question.

 

Politician Ahmet Faruk Ünsal, who was a member of parliament from the AKP in the 2002 elections, served as the chairperson of the Association of Solidarity for the Oppressed (MAZLUMDER) between 2009 and 2016, and was among the founders of the DEVA Party, from which he resigned, is among the names that signed the declaration.

 

Ünsal spoke to the Mezopotamya Agency (MA) about the purpose of the declaration of which he is a signatory.

 

Stating that the Kurdish question, which has not been resolved since the past, has become a regional problem affecting Syria, Iraq and Iran, as well as being a problem that concerns Turkey, Ünsal noted that this situation poses a great threat to social peace.

 

COST OF WAR

 

Stating that all the blockages in Turkey, especially the increasing economic crisis, are directly linked to the unresolved Kurdish issue, Ünsal said: “Turkey has been gotten through a severe economic crisis, especially in the last two years. A period of triple-digit inflation and a terrible cost of living. In addition to some reasons for this, such as transparency and corruption in tenders, one of the important reasons is that peace has not been established both in Turkey and in the Rojava and Bashur line. Then, we can say that the people of Turkey will give great support to this issue when they address this issue, both in terms of the establishment of social peace and social psychology and in terms of its contribution to general economic welfare. So we need to explain the economic cost of the war to our people again."

 

'ÖCALAN IS A VERY IMPORTANT ACTOR'

 

Emphasizing that in the declaration, it was requested to end the isolation imposed on PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, who was held in İmralı, in order to solve the Kurdish issue on a democratic and peaceful basis, Ünsal said: “As you know, the doors of İmralı have been closed for 32 months. Neither his lawyers nor his family can meet. Under these circumstances, the opening of the Imrali gates where Öcalan, who is a very important actor as we see from the example of the past solution process, is being held means the entry of an important actor in terms of solving the Kurdish issue; therefore, there is no reason not to give up on this actor and go to that atmosphere of tranquility that we all witnessed when this actor came into play. The declaration was to demand a process in which Öcalan could step in, by ensuring that the political parties with groups in the parliament put the Kurdish issue directly on their agenda, and by opening the gates of Imrali, which his government had closed at the expense of violating its own laws and legislation."

 

MA / İbrahim Irmak