In Wan, Thousands Rally to Demand Resumption of Peace Process
Thousands rally in Wan, Northern Kurdistan to demand resumption of peace process and education in Kurdish. DEM Party leaders called for a commission to visit imprisoned leader Ocalan and urged dialogue.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Thousands of residents in the province of Wan, in southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), gathered on Sunday in a mass rally calling for the revival and continuation of the stalled peace process.
The demonstration was held at Musa Anter Park under the slogan “Peace and Democratic Solution.” The event featured speeches by Tuncer Bakırhan, Co-Chair of the Democratic Regions Party (DEM), Keskin Bayındır, Co-Chair of the Democratic Peoples’ Party (DBP), and Gültan Kışanak, an activist from the Free Women’s Movement, all of whom stressed the urgency of addressing the Kurdish question through peaceful and democratic means.
In his address, DEM Co-Chair Tuncer Bakırhan urged the immediate formation of a commission to visit Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned Kurdish leader, and to hold direct talks with him.
“The establishment of such a commission is of great importance and dignity,” Bakırhan said, emphasizing that peace requires unity beyond ideological divides. “I call on all parties, regardless of our different ideologies, to take part in this commission and come together for peace.”
Participants at the rally, speaking to Kurdistan24, voiced their demand for peace and the right to education in the Kurdish language. They stressed their wish for their children to study in their mother tongue and appealed to families not to use Turkish at home.
“We protested for the sake of peace,” demonstrators said, underscoring their call for cultural and linguistic rights alongside a political settlement.
Party representatives also announced that the DEM Party will continue its activities in September with the same determination, signaling that the movement will not relent in pressing for dialogue and reconciliation.
The mass gathering in Wan reflected growing pressure from Kurdish political leaders, activists, and ordinary citizens for the resumption of a peace process that has long remained suspended, and for a democratic solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey.
