Turkey's pro-Kurdish party will meet with President Erdogan
ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party will meet President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, seeking to move along a peace process between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.
DEM, the country's third-biggest party and which has played a key role facilitating the PKK's disarmament decision in May, said it met PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in prison on Sunday.
"(Ocalan) he said he attaches great importance to our delegation's meeting with the president described it as historic," the party said in a statement.
The PKK, which has been locked in a bloody conflict with the Turkish state for more than four decades, decided in May to disband and end its armed struggle. The PKK could start handing over its weapons in the coming days, officials and sources said.
President Erdogan will receive DEM Party leaders and delegation in Ankara at 1200 GMT. They are expected to discuss the recent developments in the PKK disarmament process.
Since Ocalan's public call to his PKK in February, DEM has held talks with Erdogan and other government officials seeking to propel the potential peace process.
Since the PKK launched its insurgency against Turkey in 1984 - originally with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state - the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, imposed a huge economic burden and fuelled social tensions.
(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun and Zeynep Berkem; Editing by Michael Perry)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
37 minutes ago
- New Straits Times
At trial, US professors criticise arrests of pro-Palestinian students
NEW YORK: A group of US university professors told a court Monday that President Donald Trump's administration has created a climate of fear on campuses by seeking to deport foreign students with pro-Palestinian views. Academics from institutions including Harvard University claim students are being targeted based on their ideologies, breaching free speech protections under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The Trump administration, which has clashed with elite US colleges over refuted claims of anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism, has said it is simply adhering to existing immigration and visa laws. However, the arrests of several pro-Palestinian student activists, such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, have stirred anger in recent months. During the two-week trial in Boston, the group of professors is hoping to persuade Republican-appointed Judge William Young to protect students and staff who engage in pro-Palestinian advocacy from being deported. Nadje Al-Ali, a Middle East and anthropology professor at Brown University, told the court she could face repercussions for her work. "Although these were students, I felt like, okay, next in line will be faculty, and so it definitely felt vulnerable and targeted as a result," she said. Al-Ali, a German citizen with Iraqi roots, said she had avoided attending protests against the Trump administration's policies out of fear of being filmed and then "targeted." In the case of Khalil, a Columbia University student who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, the US government argued that his presence in the country posed a threat to US national security. "The case is an immensely important test of the First Amendment at a moment when we need the First Amendment's protections more than ever," said the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit.
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Britain marks 20 years of London bombings with reflection
LONDON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Britain on Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people and injured over 700, with ceremonies, remembrance, and renewed focus on counterterrorism. At 8:50 a.m.(0750 GMT), the time the first bomb exploded, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and London Mayor Sadiq Khan laid wreaths at Hyde Park's memorial, with King Charles III praising acts of courage and compassion from that day. Experts like Naomi Davis-Crane, a former counterterrorism analyst, warned of ongoing threats, especially from lone actors radicalized online. She stressed the need for vigilance, better victim support, and stricter control of extremist content on social media. "There is a melancholy, and just a question as to when it will happen again -- because it will happen again," she told Xinhua. While the 7/7 attacks were carried out by four British nationals radicalized by al-Qaeda ideology, more recent incidents -- including the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing and the 2021 explosion outside Liverpool Women's Hospital -- reflect an emerging pattern of lone actors radicalized online. The case of Southport murderer Axel Rudakubana may further illustrate how radicalization has increasingly moved online. "A significant number of counterterrorist authorities during the last 20 years have realized the need to manage content that people are consuming via social media," said Davis-Crane. "The social media platforms themselves have to identify and remove the content, and there is a responsibility on governments to legislate in this field," she added. "Terrorism will impact every individual in a very different way, and the support needs will potentially last a lifetime," she said.
New Straits Times
7 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Freed from jail, Columbia University activist seizes his new platform
United States President Donald Trump's fight with elite American universities was only a few days old when federal immigration agents arrested the Palestinian student activist at his Columbia University apartment building in New York in March. During the three months Khalil was held at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana, the Trump administration escalated its battle. The administration also arrested other foreign pro-Palestinian students. It revoked billions of dollars in research grants to Columbia, Harvard and other private schools. These campuses had been embroiled in the growing student protest movement — a movement in which Khalil played a prominent role. ADVERTISING "I absolutely don't regret standing up against a genocide," Khalil, 30, said in an interview at his Manhattan apartment, less than two weeks after US district judge Michael Farbiarz ordered him released on bail while he challenges the effort to revoke his permanent residency green card and deport him. He believes the government is trying to silence him, but has instead given him a bigger platform. Returning to New York after his release, Khalil was welcomed at the airport by US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a political foe of Trump. Supporters waved Palestinian flags as he reunited with his wife and infant son, whose birth he missed in jail. Two days later, he was the star of a rally on the steps of a cathedral near Columbia's Manhattan campus, castigating the university's leaders. "I did not choose to be in this position: ICE did," Khalil said, referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who arrested him. He missed his May graduation ceremony and emerged from jail unemployed. The government could win its appeal and jail him again, so Khalil said his priority is spending as much time as possible with his son and wife, a dentist. Khalil was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria; his wife, Dr Noor Abdalla, is a US citizen and he became a US lawful permanent resident last year. Khalil moved to New York in 2022 to begin graduate studies. He soon became a key student negotiator between Columbia's administration and protesters. The demonstrators set up tent encampments on campus, demanding the university divest its US$14 billion endowment from weapons manufacturers and companies supporting Israel's military. Khalil has not been charged with any crime. However, the US government is invoking an obscure immigration statute. It argues that Khalil and other international pro-Palestinian students should be deported because their "otherwise lawful" speech could harm US foreign policy interests. The federal judge overseeing the case has ruled that the Trump administration's main rationale for deporting Khalil is likely an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights. The government is appealing. Khalil, in the interview, condemned anti-Semitism and called Jewish students an "integral part" of the protest movement. He said the government was using anti-Semitism as a pretext to reshape American higher education, which Trump, a Republican, has said is captured by anti-American, Marxist and "radical left" ideologies. The Trump administration has warned Columbia and other universities that federal research grants — mostly for biomedical work — will not be restored unless the government is given more oversight. This includes control over admissions, hiring and academic content. The administration says this is necessary to ensure intellectual diversity. Unlike Harvard, Columbia has not challenged the legality of the grant revocations. The university has agreed to at least some of the Trump administration's demands. He urged Columbia and other universities targeted by Trump to heed their students.
