In the evening of Tuesday 25 October, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Enlargement Negotiations Commissioner Johannes Hahn called for a resumption of dialogue in south east Turkey after reading "very worrying" reports about the arrest of democratically elected co-mayors, Gültan Kisanak and Firat Anli, in the town of Diyarbakir (the biggest city in the south east that has a Kurdish majority) in a terror investigation.
In a joint press release, Mogherini and Hahn state that over the past 15 months, there has not been any cessation of violence in the south east of Turkey. The EU fully recognises the security threat of the PKK, the two EU leaders say, but at the same time, it is still essential for all measures to be taken in respect of the rule of law, regular procedures and fundamental freedoms. They point out that as an EU accession candidate country, Turkey has committed to the above.
Mogherini and Hahn repeat the EU’s call for a political solution to the Kurdish question as the only viable option. They say weapons should be deposed and a domestic political dialogue should start as a matter of priority, involving elected representatives of the population concerned. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)