MAXMUR (DIHA) – Now that the peace group has returned to Iraq, it appears that any efforts for peace will prove futile, yet again in the history of the conflict.

Peace group members explained that the same conditions which occasioned their departure from Turkey remain in place. The ‘opening’ policy is a political ruse, pledging nothing but a waste of time for all parties involved.
The peace group had hoped to come to Turkey to renew dialogue and to end the conflict. The living conditions of their camp were also unbearable.
Nine months ago, thirty-four people returned from Maxhmur and Qandil, after PM Erdogn promised them free passage and amnesty. However, eleven were arrested and ten remain in prison, awaiting their trial.
Seventeen finally returned back to Qandil Mountain and the Maxhmur Refugee Camp in the Federation of the Region of Kurdistan in Iraq, facing pressure and prosecution from Turkish authorities. They had initially come to Turkey on October 19, at PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan’s beckoning.
Twenty-six members of the group are on trial for disseminating propaganda on behalf of the PKK and, if convicted, will serve 20-year prison sentences. While a member of the group, Lutfu Tas, has already been sentenced to 10 months in prison, 10 others are still held in custody due to ongoing trials. .

It is reported that 14 members of the peace delegation, including 6 children, crossed the border yesterday to Makhmur Refugee Camp. The group held a press conference upon their arrival in Makhmur and explained their decision to go back to Iraq.
Bulent Aka spoke on behalf of the group: “We are the most aggrieved part of Kurdish society since 1984, the beginning of the conflict. We would like to come back to our own land for better conditions like an honorable peace process. We were not living in Maxhmur voluntarily. We had to immigrate since our properties like land, houses, fields, livestock were set on fire.

Furthermore, our relatives were killed during the bombardment and operations. Pressure from soldiers and village guards made us leave. But still we have learned in Maxhmur Refugee Camp that you cannot solve the problem by the policy of an eye for an eye. And we volunteered to come back to Turkey as a Peace Group. But we saw that there is nothing changed here.

The State did not recognize us as a Peace Group. Most of us were brought to court for our speeches. Thousands of Kurds’ happiness, based on our coming back as a Peace Group, was considered as a terrorist demonstration. This is definitely deception. We are not going to give up our honor.”

Emine Sağat (65), Sait Şedal (62), Mehmet Kaçan (45), Mehmet Adanmış (44), Musa Tümeg (30), Nurcan Tümeg (22), Rojda Tümeg (2), Huseyin Tümeg (three months), Mikail Soydan, Melekşah Soydan, Nizar Buldan (college student ), Bulent Aka (lawyer), Hacı Sorgul, Kamil -Hamsiye Okten (Parents of four), Fatma Izer, Ismail Ayas olmak are the members of the Peace Group who went back to Maxmur.

While the aim of sending exiles back to Turkey was to demonstrate the sincerity of the Kurds in solving the Kurdish conflict in Turkey, it was also a test for Turkey to show that it has a new approach to the crisis.

Although the decision by the authorities not to prosecute the peace group, as previous administrations had with other peace groups in 1999, was seen as a gesture of reconciliation by the Kurdish side, the government’s approach soon became harsher towards the PKK and Kurds.

Police used excessive and disproportionate violence against Kurdish demonstrations in which hundreds of Kurdish children were arrested, sent to prison and charged with terrorist crimes merely because of throwing stones at the police.

(gü/bk)