DEM Party Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan said that we must struggle together to ensure the government takes steps in the peace process. He spoke at his party’s Bursa Provincial Congress. He said that in order to prevent a repeat of the Suruç and October 10 train station massacres, as well as unsolved murders, a Turkey must be built where Kurds, Turks, Circassians, Alevis, and women live equally and freely.
Bakırhan argued that “Green Bursa” has turned into a “concrete Bursa” and that its mountains and forests have been handed over to capital. He stated that they would fight against this “ecocide.” He publicly stated that although Bursa is an industrial city, workers cannot earn a living, while small and medium-sized shopkeepers are shutting down. A handful of people have grown rich. Reminding that Turkey is the world’s 20th largest economy, Bakırhan cited the example of a citizen in Antalya who, unable to find shelter or food, insulted the President in order to be arrested.
Bakırhan claimed that the SPK, Turkey’s capital markets regulator, and the state bureaucracy bore responsibility for the fund heist in which 20 billion dollars was “pocketed” overnight. No one was detained or arrested. He called on the relevant institutions to resign and announced that they would fight in Parliament.
Emphasizing that peace is the first stage, Bakırhan said that in the second stage, equal citizenship for the Kurdish language and Alevis, as well as economic justice, would be discussed. Young people’s lack of a future will also be discussed. He noted that they were engaged in both negotiation and opposition.
Why it matters
The speech suggests that the peace process may not remain confined to a single headline: Bakırhan’s announcement that equal citizenship for the Kurdish language and Alevis, economic justice, and the future of young people would be discussed in the second stage points to the possibility of the agenda expanding toward issues of identity and welfare. The DEM Party’s approach of pursuing negotiation and opposition at the same time reflects the party’s effort to preserve a distinct position vis-à-vis its own base while remaining at the table with the government; this balance shapes the party’s relationship with both the government and its voters. The call for resignation over the fund heist and the emphasis that no detentions were made indicate an intention to carry the accountability debate onto Parliament’s agenda. The question that remains open is whether the government will accept this expanding agenda as part of the negotiation and whether the calls directed at institutions will receive a response.
Background
Bakırhan is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 5 news items featuring this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated October 7, 2026.