Turkey must accept the extended hand

On Newroz, the traditional Kurdish New Year celebrated on 21 March, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, Abdullah Öcalan, called upon his supporters to put down their weapons and ordered the Kurdish freedom fighters to leave Turkey. Öcalan’s declaration indicates that the time has come to give politics the priority, to democratise all of Turkey and adopt a ceasefire. The N-VA hopes that this will definitely pave the way to a peaceful solution in the Turkish-Kurdish dispute. But the Turkish constitution still presumes “one state, one nation, one language, one flag”. As long as the Turkish elite refuses to recognise the country’s diversity, the Kurds in Turkey will still be oppressed. Only by completely recognising the rights of the Kurdish people, both in the Turkish constitution and in practice, will Turkey be able to take the first step down a long road to fundamental democratisation.