DIYARBAKIR, Northern Kurdistan, — Osman Baydemir the mayor of Diyarbakir, the capital of Kurdistan, is facing a criminal investigation over his speech on Kurdish problem and democratic autonomy which he delivered at Dersim cultural festival on 31 July.
“We propose Democratic Autonomy Project against the AKP’s National Unity Project. It means the Turkish National Parliament will remain but also there will be local parliaments, including Kurdistan Parliament.” said mayor of Diyarbakir Osman Baydemir the other day at Munzur River Festival in Dersim.
Regarding the debates on negotiations for the Kurdish problem Baydemir said “Those who are looking for an interlocutor should look at the Newroz celebration on 2010 in Diyarbakir in which almost a million people were took part. And people made it clear who should be addressed for the solution”.
In relation to the “Democratic Autonomy Project” of BDP Baydemir said “Autonomy is misunderstood in Turkey. It is not secession but the project of living together. There are peoples in Europe who have autonomy despite the fact that their population is not more than 2 millions. However, our democratic autonomy framework is much wider than the European autonomy framework.”
Baydemir added: “This project should be seen as ‘Democratic Kurdistan Autonomy in Turkey’ which means the Turkish National Assembly will remain but there will also be a Kurdistan Parliament. Besides the Turkish flag there will also be our flag of green-red-yellow colours. For instance, next to the Turkish flag flapping in front of the Dersim Municipality building there will be the Kurdish flag flapping next to it.”
Regarding Baydemir’s statement the state minister Cemil Cicek blamed him by being insane and not being aware of what he is talking about.