ANKARA
A letter claiming to represent Kurdish youths opposed to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) violence has been sent to Turkey’s president.
The letter sent to Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday calls for an end to “terror and death” in the country.
“We, as Kurdish youths who want to live in peace in this country, say ‘edi bese’ [enough is enough in Kurdish] to those who do not promise anything else [apart] from terror and death,” the letter reads, according to 28-year-old Emrah Inanc, who leads the group.
The same group around a month ago launched an online petition to call for an end to the violence and denounced terrorism; it currently has around 6,500 signatures.
Turkey launched what is publicly known as the ‘solution process’ in 2013 to end the decades-old conflict with the PKK, a dispute which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people over more than 30 years.
However, after a new wave of attacks against Turkish security forces in the country’s southeastern regions in July, Ankara has conducted air raids against the PKK for the first time in the last two-and-a-half years.
Operations against the PKK are ongoing across the country. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU.
Inanc stated that they highlighted in the letter that "the biggest sufferer" in the latest violence were Kurdish youths themselves.
“You [Erdogan] have conducted the brotherhood [between Turks and Kurds] in this country. You’ve provided the opening of state TV, which broadcasts in Kurdish for 24 hours a day and for Kurdish to be an elective course [at schools] ... We are the witnesses of the sacrifices that you’ve made for your Kurdish brothers,” the letter reads.
“Kurds and Turks are brothers. We will not allow any trick to harm our brotherhood,” it added.
