ANKARA - The HDP issued a statement to mark the 22 years since the international plan of 9 October against Abdullah Öcalan.

 

The HDP said in a written statement: "22 years have passed since the international plan of 9 October. This plan, which was launched on this day in 1998, marked the starting date of a great intervention towards the common future of the peoples of the Middle East, especially the Kurdish people, in the person of Abdullah Öcalan. This plan, which was implemented against the thoughts of the Middle Eastern people that could inspire the struggle for peace, peace, democracy and freedom, has created many problems whose effects are still felt today."

 

The statement added: "This plan started with Öcalan’s traveling away from Syria and was implemented as a mean of regional intervention in the Middle East by international forces. This trap was meant for both the peoples of both Turkey and the Middle East, it brought Turks and Kurds against each other in a civil war. Öcalan proposed and showed that there was an alternative to this civil war. From Imrali he spoiled this dirty and dangerous plan, showing to the people of Turkey that a common life and a Democratic Republic were possible.”

 

Öcalan is against both this plan and the isolation; He showed the way to benefit from differences, take strength from them and prevent loss of lives. He tried to build a democratic nation model consisting of segments with different beliefs, nationalities and cultures. Since this call was responded to with isolation and violence, the Kurdish issue was sentenced to a permanent deadlock. The insistence of the state on this issue lies at the root of the democracy problem we are experiencing today. The approach to Öcalan has also been a mirror of the approach to the Kurdish problem and democracy.”

 

The HDP ended its statement with the following remarks: “On the 22nd anniversary of this international plan, absolute isolation continues; Öcalan's family is unlawfully prevented from meeting with him and so are his lawyers. He cannot share his ideas with the public. The isolation implemented in Imrali in the person of Öcalan is spreading to the whole country today. They wantto leave the society without breath. The absolute isolation in Imrali is an attack against the people's hope for a solution. We will continue to defend the society, common life and the Democratic Republic against this mentality which wants to put one people against the other.”