Bullet-like words from a veteran to the members of parliament!...

The nation's Parliament did not go on recess. Because they need to urgently pass a law for the amnesty of separatist terrorists. And this will be the first step in a series of demands from the PKK, which is said to be finished, exhausted, and surrendered.

While everyone, including the government and its media, was experiencing the excitement of the proposal regarding this opening being submitted to the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), another legislative proposal came to the agenda simultaneously.

With this, new rights are supposedly being granted to martyrs' families, veterans, and those who were wounded on July 15 but are not considered veterans. The most striking aspect within the scope of the law in question is that it concerns the families of privates martyred by PKK terrorism and private veterans. Because these people, numbering around 5 thousand, started a sit-in protest at Ankara Güvenpark on July 13 and a hunger strike starting from August 3. Their only request is to have the same personal rights as their peers.

They have been fighting for this from door to door for exactly 4 years.

It seems their luck (!) was tied to the PKK law... The legislative proposal, which included almost none of their demands, was discussed in the TBMM National Defense Commission. Should you be sorry that if the Parliament were not kept open for the PKK, their coming to the agenda would be left to another spring, or that they are now being put in the same category?!

As of the day before yesterday, they had been in Güvenpark day and night for exactly 24 days. Everyone came, but not a single soul from the government approached them to even ask how they were.

Upon this, they went to the TBMM National Defense Commission as a delegation and requested to participate in the discussions of that insufficient proposal. If it weren't for the initiatives of the IYI Party, this would not have been allowed either; but fortunately, they were able to enter the TBMM.

When it became clear that they would be accepted into the Parliament, they first prepared halva for the soul of their friend Erdal Özdemir, who survived the treacherous attack in 1993 where the PKK martyred 33 of our privates, and who passed away after being sent to his hometown due to illness following his participation in the first days of the protest at Güvenpark, to offer to the commission members. However, the halva was not allowed to be brought into the Parliament. They offered it to the police officers on duty instead.

So, what happened at the commission meeting?

Late at night, it was only announced that “the legislative proposal for martyrs' families and veterans was accepted.”

Akar and Çelebi Did Not Come Until They Left

Yet, such things happened!..

When the martyrs' families and veterans arrived at the commission door, they were told they would not be let in. They, saying “Shame on those who made us sit here,” sat on the floor in the corridor and started to wait.

IYI Party Deputy Chairman Selçuk Türkoğlu, who accompanied them, shouted:

“In this Parliament where separatists and traitors are held in high regard, it is forbidden for veterans to even attend the commission meeting concerning themselves as observers. Hulusi Akar, shame on you. You didn't bring this law to the agenda while they were seeking their rights for years, but you brought it along with the separatist law, the law that will dismantle the Republic. And there is nothing in it.”

As the martyrs' families and veterans chanted “Resign... Resign” and Türkoğlu apologized repeatedly for what they were put through, the generals who would participate in the commission as representatives of the Ministry of National Defense arrived. The veterans reacted to them with the words, “Those who give orders and send us to death enter the commission comfortably, while we are left here.”

Meanwhile, the commission meeting was delayed and delayed. Why? Because Chairman Hulusi Akar and commission member former lieutenant Mehmet Ali Çelebi had not come and did not want to come while the veterans were in front of the door.

Commission Deputy Chairman Refik Özen from the AKP came to them and tried to persuade them by explaining that a comprehensive study had been carried out for about 2 years, consultations had been held with many associations, and work was continuing to solve the remaining problems. In the end, when it was allowed for Erdem Çerçioğlu, the spokesperson for the Private Martyrs' Families and Private Veterans Platform, to participate in the commission meeting on behalf of all of them, the others agreed to leave there and wait downstairs. Following this, Akar and Çelebi arrived, and the commission meeting began.

While the commission meeting was ongoing, they wanted to offer tea and dry cookies to the private veterans hosted in a hall. They remembered they were on a hunger strike and refused... When it was emphasized that it was “an offering from Mr. Hulusi Akar and Mehmet Ali Çelebi,” they said, “Then we don't want it at all,” and left there collectively.

“You Are Sitting Comfortably in These Seats Thanks to Us”

Let's return to the commission meeting; Platform Spokesperson Erdem Çerçioğlu, who coincidentally sat in the place where Mehmet Ali Çelebi's name was on the table, said the following word for word in his 3-minute speech:

“I see my commanders here who gave us orders. I am one of the people who came from those unplastered houses and were sent to death. I have never spoken in such commission meetings before, I apologize in advance if I make a mistake. The honorable deputy says, ‘We examined and researched this proposal very thoroughly.’ The proposal that came after 2.5 years does not solve any of our problems. We are the people you patted on the back and sent to death, sent to death without blinking an eye, and while you were doing politics, sent to be sacrificed for the homeland with henna on their hands, and they are in front of the door. (Pointing to Mehmet Ali Çelebi's nameplate) I would like to remind you; as if you are giving us pocket money, you are giving us some money, you say ‘We made a salary increase.’ We have been protesting in Güvenpark for 24 days. We have no financial problems. We are not saying anything about money or wealth. We want to be treated like human beings. When the Ministry of National Defense sends us to death, there is no problem. When it comes to giving us our social rights, you throw us aside like trash, you throw us into the Ministry of Family. Even though we were wounded by the same terrorist bullet under the same conditions in the same uniform, you ignore us. I don't understand why you ignore us either. If you are sitting comfortably and peacefully at these tables and seats here today, you are sitting thanks to my friends outside and me. What does it mean that we cannot enter here? I find this very strange. We are the main element that makes the state a state, we are. Martyrs' families and veterans. Come on, I challenge you, let one of you prick your finger with a needle. You allowed us to be pruned like branches at the age of 20. Maybe you gave the wrong order, maybe you said the wrong things, here you are, big men, arguing about the three cents of money you will put in our pockets. We never accept this, never. We are no different from our friends who were wounded under the same conditions in the same uniform. We are seeking our vertical transition precedent personal rights. And we will not leave Güvenpark until we get that right.”

After Çerçioğlu finished his words and left the hall, the Commission proceeded to the discussions and the proposal was accepted exactly as it was without any changes. After the acceptance, Chairman Hulusi Akar also made the following statement:

“We are striving to do whatever we can to protect the rights and laws of our martyrs' families and veterans and to make things better. Within the means of our country, our nation, and our state... The heart wants many things, but after a certain point, some constraints stop us, but we will not stop here. Beyond this enacted legislative proposal, we will continue our work as a commission. We will continue to work with determination day and night to make the lives of our martyrs' families and veterans even better.”

What Did the Veterans Want and What Did Özgür Özel Say?

After that heated and active night, Yeni Party Chairman Özgür Özel was in Güvenpark yesterday morning.

While Platform Spokesperson Erdem Çerçioğlu was conveying what happened in the Parliament and their reactions, he said, “We are people whose lives were extinguished at the age of 20. This is not what we deserve. If the terrorist organization had prepared this law, it would have prepared a better one. Shame on you. We are 5 thousand people. Did this happen because we are not 20 thousand people?”

Then he asked this of Özgür Özel:

“Even if you say ‘yes’ to this law, none of us accept that framework law. If you make the martyrs' families and veterans cry with this framework law, we do not grant you our rights either. Please evaluate, measure, and weigh it very well. I leave whatever decision you make to your conscience. I wholeheartedly believe that you will stand against this process.”

What was Özgür Özel's response to this?

Unfortunately, he beat around the bush, so to speak; he explained that “they advocate for all regulations to be made on a democratic basis so that blood does not flow again in Turkey,” that this is their “thousand-year-old idea,” that “they advocate for this to be discussed in the Parliament,” and that “they are following it carefully,” and said, “We will never be involved in things where we cannot approach the martyrs' families and veterans or look them in the eye. In terms of Turkey's future, in terms of ending terrorism, we are approaching the prevention of terrorism, the fact that there will be no more veterans or martyrs, and democratic issues from the right place.”

After Özel's speech ended, the veterans shouted again, “Do not sign the framework law. Do not make us lose our hope.” Those with Özel replied, “We did not sign.”

It doesn't matter whether they sign it or not!.. Whether this PKK law will be supported in the commission and the General Assembly; that is what is essential.

While on one hand “Atatürk's principles and the founding philosophy of the Republic” and on the other hand “equal citizenship, education in the mother tongue, autonomy for local governments” have been put into the Party Program, I don't know if there is anyone who has hope; but let's note this:

Since the nation founded the Yeni Party, then let the nation write the program, and let it be said today regarding the PKK law that “we will listen to the voice of our nation.” Since MHP's Feti Yıldız said they expect the proposal to be enacted next week with over 430 votes, they don't need their votes anyway.

In short; it is enough to be ashamed of what our private martyrs' families and private veterans have been put through for these 26 days and their justified reactions!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

August 7, 2026