Kurds hope for peace with Türkiye | EUROtoday

A sea of ​​Kurdish flags extends in entrance of the stage. Tens of 1000’s will have a good time the Kurdish New Year “Newroz” in a Frankfurter Park this Saturday. It marks the start of the spring and is of explicit significance for a lot of Kurds this yr. The prospect of a doable peace course of between the forbidden Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK and the Turkish state awakens hopes in them. Occasionally, flags on which Abdullah Öcalan could be seen, the founder and the management determine of the PKK.

“You could be locked up until the nineties just because you said: I’m Kurd,” says Ercan Ayboga from the Kurdish Society Center in Frankfurt, which co -organized the pageant. Öcalan has been detained in a Turkish jail for greater than 25 years. Since his conviction, he has not appeared in public – a present picture and a letter was revealed by him by the top of February. In this he referred to as on the PKK fighters to place down their weapons.

Ayboga estimates the variety of guests to greater than 50,000. The incontrovertible fact that so many got here may also be associated to Öcalan’s name. One hopes for doable negotiations with the Turkish authorities, much less repression, extra recognition of Kurdish tradition and extra rights for the administrations of the Kurdish areas in Turkey. Ayboga, who grew up because the son of Kurdish visitor employees in Germany, says: “The solution to the Kurdish question also means democratization.”

The speeches on stage are primarily stored in Kurdish. A spokesman for the Kurdish National Congress makes it clear that you’re behind Öcalan’s name and desire a new political course of to resolve the Kurdish query. The viewers cheers.

The Turkish politician Cengiz Cicek from the Kurdish Deme-party later steps to the microphone. A delegation of his occasion visited Öcalan in jail in February and skim his name at a press convention in Istanbul. When Cicek leaves the stage after his speech, guests frolic behind the development fence that separates the stage space from the festivals. With the grille, Cicek shakes your hand.

The FAZ says Cicek on the sidelines of the occasion that he had introduced the greetings as we speak. Despite the lengthy detention, he’s doing nicely. The Kurdish inhabitants has been combating for his or her rights for many years. The present framework situations now allowed an answer. All states that had a Kurdish downside must clear up it politically, not by power, he says. Cicek is no surprise that a number of the festivals additionally see this skeptically. There are not any confidence within the Turkish authorities on the a part of the Kurds. That must be overcome, he says.

There is a variety of hustle and bustle on the pitch. Visitors climb timber with their flags to get a greater view of the stage. A Kurdish band is taking part in there. Traditional dishes are offered at stands and plenty of put on their regional costumes. “It’s like we’re back in our country,” says one customer. He is 16 years outdated and is named Serok. In German, his identify means “leader”. It is the nickname that the Kurds additionally awarded Öcalan. His household had fled from Rojava, says Serok, the Kurdish autonomous self -administration in northern Syria, which is bombarded by Turkish armed forces. “We support Öcalan to the end,” says his 4 -year -old brother Erkan. Neither thinks that the PKK will dissolve and it will enhance the scenario of the Kurds. “I don’t think there will ever be peace,” says Erkan.

Another says: “We don’t let ourselves be kept small.” He grew up in Cologne and his Kurdish grandfather got here from the Turkish metropolis of Urfa. “Newroz” is an open pageant through which cultural coexistence is within the foreground. “At the same time we show that we are there,” he says. After such a very long time, Öcalan’s signal of life is essential for the Kurds.

The detention of Kurds, who criticized the Turkish authorities, by no means stopped, says Ayboga. After Öcalan’s name, it had turn out to be much less. He believes that the dialogue concerning the dissolution of the PKK for concessions will now proceed to the Kurdish inhabitants. “The Turkish government is not interested in more democracy, but it is considering how it can capitalize on the negotiations,” he says.