Brussels, 13/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - According to the actukurde website on Thursday 12 July, in response to written questions from MEPs François Alfonsi and José Bové (Greens/EFA, France) on the subject of Kurdistan, European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle has called on Kurds and Turks to work unrelentingly to bring peace and prosperity to all citizens of Turkey.
Stefan Füle stressed: “The south-east of Turkey needs peace, democracy and stability as well as social, economic and cultural development. This can only be achieved via consensus over concrete measures expanding the social, economic and cultural rights of the people living in the region.”
Both MEPs also raised questions regarding the conditions of detention of the Kurd leader who is the founding father of the Kurdistan workers' party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, and who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 1999. The European commissioner underlined that, since 27 July 2011, without any legal grounding, Ocalan has been refused all contact with his lawyers, which is possible violation of the Turkish legal provisions as well as those of the European Convention on Human Rights. He recalled the support provided by the EU for Turkey in its fight against terrorism and that the PKK is on the list of terrorist organisations.
Since 1984, the conflict between the PKK and the Turkish government is reported to have caused more than 45,000 fatalities, and there is currently no let-up in the violence. (CG/transl.jl)