AGENDA

As Hrant Dink said, “Every Armenian is a document”. However, we need to remind those who keep insisting, “Show us the documents” of two recent developments.

Öcalan’s written message was read out at the Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır. Öcalan made call of farewell to arms on the basis of principles.

HDP Istanbul Member of Parliament Sırrı Süreyya Önder announced that Abdullah Öcalan has made a call to the PKK to hold congress in the spring for disarmament.

Following the evacuation on the night of 21 February Saturday by military operation of the Suleyman Shah Tomb and the affiliated Commemoration Station, the only piece of land that belongs to Turkey that lies outside of its borders, attention is now focused on the Eşme region in Syria, officially announced as the new location for the tomb. However, the region Ankara has declared as the new destination of the “heritage of forefathers” was along the deportation route of the Armenian Genocide a century ago.

People continue their struggle to survive in Kessab, a town on the border of Syria with Turkey in the Hatay province area. Following the occupation of the town by Al-Nusra forces last year, the Armenians in the town had been dispersed, with most of them coming to Vakıflı Village in Hatay, and had returned after the Syrian army had retaken the town. However, the people of Kessab now face the threat of ISIS.

Assaulted in Parliament during the meeting for the internal security package, HDP Member of Parliament described the fight that broke out: “You cannot but run for help when a friend of yours is being assaulted by thugs. If there is a price to pay for that, we are prepared, but the real problem here is that the Parliament is increasingly resembling a slaughterhouse.”

The ‘Internal Security Package’ to be discussed in Parliament next week has once again opened the debate on the boundaries of authority to be transferred to law enforcement. Departing from the security package that has become the focus of criticism, we have examined what the new regulations bring, the path followed by such regulations aiming to protect the ‘continuity of the State’ and the background of the criticized stance of the police force.

The Cabinet of Ministers has imposed a 60-day ban on the strike of the United Metalworkers’ Union on the grounds that it is ‘disruptive of national security’.

In the Zirve Publishing House Massacre case held in Malatya, verdicts of release were issued for three suspects tried for instigating the murders. Lawyers of the victims’ families share the view that the releases are a further outcome of the consensus reached between the AK Party government and ultra-nationalist circles after the 17-25 December corruption scandals.

The court has announced its verdict in the case of Ali İsmail Korkmaz who was murdered in Eskişehir during the Gezi Resistance. The accused police officers Mevlüt Saldoğan and Yalçın Akbulut each received 10-year sentences, while the other accused police officers were acquitted. The bakery personnel involved in the murder each received sentences of 6 years and 8 months.