Mr. President;

I am the leader of HAK VE ÖZGÜRLÜK PARTİSİ (RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS PARTY) founded on 11.02.2002 in Turkey
  Our party is entitled to take part in elections in Turkey . Our party has established its basis taking the resolution of Kurdish Problem as the focus point of its program. Our party advocates democratic and civil resolution of Kurdish Issue, and is against any violence. Our party is also for admission of Turkey to European Union. We have conducted the following activities to this end.

1- We held meetings in 4 provinces of Turkey (( Diyarbakır , Van, Mersin , and Ankara ) to fix the requests and expectations of the Kurds at the stage of European Union Accession. The meetings were all open to public and intellectuals. All participants were granted right to speak at the meetings. The requests and opinions expressed during the meetings were all issued in a report. One copy of the reports was submitted to all diplomatic representatives and EU Authorities. We conducted a march to Brussels accompanied with the report. We held a meeting attended by about 1000 people in Brussels . Tens of Kurdish democratic institutes attending the meeting supported us. On 03.10.2004 we delivered our report in person to President of Liberal Group and Human Rights Commission.

    2- We collected 50.000 signatures in the campaign entitled “I’m Kurdish, I take side, and I demand” initiated in march 2005 by our Party together with 83 Kurdish intellectuals. We also submitted the signature to both related authorities in Turkey and the EU commission authorities

3-. We sent 2 letters to all State Presidents of the EU member States regarding resolution of Kurdish Issue.
  4- Believing that settlement of Kurdish issue in Turkey requires a Federal system, we discussed federation in 6 provinces during meetings open to public. We have targeted to incorporate this resolution into our program during our next congress.

   5- We led and provided contribution to the conduct of meetings attended by hundreds of Kurdish intellectuals held on 04 September 2005 in Ankara and on 17-18 December 2005 in Diyarbakır in order to constitute Kurdish national initiatives.

   In addition, we conducted several civil, democratic political activities in provincial and district organizations of our Party. We have never given concessions on alternative of civil and democratic settlement of Kurdish issue. This attitude of our party has been isolated by powers gaining strength from atmosphere of violence in Turkey for more than 20 years, the forces also having dominant power in government in our opinion. Even the opposition media also ignored our activities. On the other hand, PKK fed by war in Turkey as well PKK supporters have been trying their bests in order to prevent or isolate our such activities from the People. Our observation is that PKK and Turkish Republic are in full agreement on non-settlement of Kurdish issue. Under this frame, Turkish Government does not allow development of any Kurdish opposition other than PKK. The Turkish Government has been doing its best to prevent PKK’s loss of power. It is possible to give the most recent events as obvious examples.

  Exactly 18 bombs were exploded in Şemdinli Yüksekova and Hakkari neighborhood before 09 November 2005 . While on job of exploding bomb on 9 November the criminals were caught by the public. Two of them were non-commissioned officers and one was PKK confessor. If they had not been caught, PKK would be the accused. PKK would not have denied it for the sake of proving its power. When the Prosecutor investigating the event claimed that the event was not local but performed in line with the official orders, then PKK bomb-suicider exploded bomb in Van just 2 days after the event.

While the reactions against those events were not over, Security Forces killed 14 PKK militants on 24.03.2006. It is claimed that these militants were killed by use of chemical bombs. Then the corps of the militants were delivered. The funerals were provoked on 28.03.2006 and Diyarbakır was turned into a war atmosphere for 3 days. The same provocations were also put onto stage in Adana , Siirt, Batman and İstanbul. Thousands of business places were damaged. About a thousand people were wounded, and 4 demonstrators were killed during the provocations. The PKK, which has lost its popularity and reliability in public, started to gain its popularity again. On the other hand, just 20 days later our party was subject to Suit filed at Court of Constitution for closing just because our party denied the unitary structure in its program regarding settlement of Kurdish issue, and the suit is still pending. Again I and 12 central administrators are subject to suit with claim of imprisonment up to 2 years with claim of breach of article 81 of law about political parties just because of printing our invitation to 1st Ordinary General Meeting of the Party in Kurdish and some our friends’ greeting people and delegates in Kurdish. Also our administrators in various provinces and districts are subject to suits in various suits in Turkey because of expressing their political views.

Dear Mr. President,

We are subject to a heavy actual isolation in Turkey while experiencing the actions and findings summarized above. Despite this fact, either commissions assigned by your Commissions or MPs and commissions visiting Turkey assigned by European Parliament to observe progress achieved by Turkey at stage of European Union or to investigate any events in Turkey have never visited our headquarters or rural organizations while all parties and non-governmental organizations have been visited. While investigations have been made even at quarter committees, no one contacts our party which will take place in the next election. Whereas, our party is the only party advocating settlement of civil democracy of majority in Turkey without any manipulation and also advocating democratic and civil resolution of Kurdish problem. Adopting values of European Union and denying any discrimination between people, our party expects more attention from your Commission to our activities while the party is so close to your values.

Dear Mr. President,

I hope and wish that you will not deprive our party of your attention and consider our party’s opinions about the issues in Turkey as well as talk to our party during your investigations in Turkey ,

Best regards

                                                    Abdülmelik FIRAT

                                                            President of Hak-Par