Kobani trial against Selahattin Demirtas

In his defense speech, the former co-chairman of the HDP, Selahattin Demirtaş, who had to appear before a criminal court in Ankara this week – in the scope of the so-called „Kobani trial“ – made specific suggestions for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question. “Unfortunately, the trial and the ‘peace plan’ have hardly been acknowledged by German politicians and media,” stated Dr. Kamal Sido, Middle East Consultant of the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), in Göttingen today. Demirtaş suggested seven steps towards negotiating an end to the conflict, which has been going on since the Republic of Turkey was founded over 100 years ago –along with associated wars, displacements, refugee movements, human rights violations, and war crimes. As a first step, the 51-year old, who has been in prison since 2016, demanded an end to the armed conflict between the Turkish army and the Kurdish PKK.
To ensure that both sides can talk to each other again, it would be necessary to get rid of “all legal and administrative obstacles to democratic politics” in Turkey. Further, it would be necessary to guarantee the rights to peaceful protest, to strike, to self-organization, and to freedom of expression – bringing the country into line with European laws and universal human rights standards. The third demand concerns the place where proposals and political debates to solve the Kurdish question should take place: It should be – according to Demirtaş – the parliament, the “Grand National Assembly of Turkey”. In order to achieve this, the country would need a new civil and liberal-democratic constitution.
This new constitution should recognize the Kurds as a people, ensuring “…the free use of their mother tongue in all areas of life, the preservation and development of their history and culture, self-organization and their own identity, as well as the right to self-governance.” Further, it would be necessary to investigate the crimes of the past in order to come to terms with the history of the country. Finally, it would be necessary to release the tens of thousands of political prisoners.
“The Turkish leadership will not even consider one of the suggestions brought forward by Demirtaş. Kurdish politicians have made these suggestions over and over again. It is not the people who are unwilling to compromise to bring about a peaceful solution. Rather, the state insists on solving this issue with war, violence, expulsion, forced assimilation, criminal proceedings, and prison sentences,” Sido explained.
The “Kobani trial” focuses on the events around the Syrian-Kurdish border town of Kobani when it was occupied by the Islamic State in 2014/2015. Back then, the Turkish army did not allow Kurdish people from Turkey to help their relatives on the other side of the border – and Demirtaş had called for protests against this.