KCK Co-Chair of the Executive Council Besê Hozat assessed the nearly two-year-old resolution process during a program on Medya Haber Televizyonu. Hozat argued that their movement had taken important steps, but that the state had not taken democratic, political and legal steps on the same scale. In response to Parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş’s remarks that the process was “running smoothly,” she said that it was progressing slowly and largely one-sidedly.
Hozat said that the framework law prepared with the expectation of a “root law” was incomplete and internally contradictory, and that it did not provide sufficient legal ground for the democratic resolution of the Kurdish issue. She stated that the law should cover Abdullah Öcalan’s physical freedom and the conditions for a free life and work, as well as the movement’s entire administrative structure.
Stating that steps had been taken to halt the armed struggle following the PKK’s dissolution congress, Hozat called for Öcalan’s conditions to be changed so that the process could continue. She argued that politicians, academics, writers, journalists, political parties and different segments of society should be able to meet with Öcalan. She said that the process could move forward only if Öcalan was able to conduct it freely, both officially and in practice.
Why it matters
This assessment reveals why perceptions of progress in the resolution process diverge between the parties: from Hozat’s perspective, the issue is not so much the number of steps taken as whether they are reciprocal and commensurate. At the center of the debate is not only whether the framework law expected to be prepared will remain merely a piece of legislation, but also the extent to which it will guarantee a democratic solution to the Kurdish question and the conditions concerning Öcalan and the movement’s administrative structure. The demand concerning Öcalan’s conditions and the ability of different segments of society to meet with him also raises the question of who will conduct the process and under what conditions. The statements indicate that the existing steps are not considered sufficient and that, for the process to continue, new conditions are being sought not only regarding the legal basis but also implementation.