DEM Party criticizes the process: 'The government is in a faltering, timid, and stalling stance'

DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları made assessments regarding the current agenda at her party's parliamentary group meeting. Reacting to the recent increase in detentions, Hatimoğulları stated that the operations targeting left-wing and socialist circles are unacceptable.

"We have once again woken up to a wave of detentions. Many of our left-wing, socialist, revolutionary, and patriotic friends have been detained," said Hatimoğulları, adding, "It is impossible to accept that, in these days when we are talking about peace, pressures are still continuing in a classic manner. May 1st cannot be obstructed; those who defend the rights of the oppressed cannot be detained or arrested."

Highlights from Hatimoğulları's speech are as follows:

"The call for Peace and Democratic Society made by Mr. Abdullah Öcalan on February 27th did not only grow the hope for peace, but also placed a historical threshold before Turkey. When we look at conflict resolution experiences, the steps that organizations took in ten years have been taken here in one year. The PKK made a historic move by declaring to the world that it has bid farewell to arms and is dissolving its organizational structure.

This is one of the most important developments in the hundred-year history of the Republic. If the requirements of this step are met, Turkey will not only be freed from its shackles; social polarization will decrease, and the grounds for democratization will expand.

While such a bright picture stands before us, and while we should be running toward the goal of peace, the government is in a faltering, timid, and stalling stance.

Every moment the government fails to take action in the peace process paves the way for opponents of the process to develop provocative attitudes. Do you not see how the media brokers, who constantly muddy the waters by claiming the process is blocked, are rubbing their hands? Let these circles and those who facilitate them listen well: Do not rub your hands in vain; you will catch no fish from this lake. No matter what happens, we will bring the ship of peace to this port.

The state mind should not be one that wastes opportunities, but one that takes responsibility at a historic moment. Doing this will be a historic development that prepares the ground for a democratic republic. No one should waste this opportunity.

As the DEM Party, we will work harder to ensure it is not wasted and to prevent that. Because we wholeheartedly believe in an honorable peace. By overcoming obstacles, by overcoming those who ignore us, we, as the DEM Party, are putting not just our hands but our entire bodies under the stone to ensure this process succeeds as soon as possible."