Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party is set to lead a mass rally in Diyarbakır (Amed) on 13 October, opposing the Turkish government’s war policy and the incommunicado detention of Abdullah Öcalan. DEM Party Co-Chair Tülay Hatimoğulları criticised the government’s hostility towards the Kurds and called for unity and peace.

Hatimoğulları emphasised the rally’s significance, stating, “The Justice and Development Party (AKP)- Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) government has focused its policies on hostility towards the Kurds. We demand the immediate end of the isolation of Mr Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı. Tens of thousands will gather in Amed to say ‘Freedom for Öcalan, solution to the Kurdish problem.’”

Ferit Şenyaşar, DEM Party MP for Şanlıurfa (Riha), described the rally as a direct response to the government’s failure to address the Kurdish question. “The Kurdish people, and indeed the world, will be watching. If peace is to be achieved, the doors of İmralı must be opened.”

Adalet Kaya, Diyarbakır MP, stressed the need to end Öcalan’s isolation, calling it a “torture” that blocks any path to peace. “The democratic solution lies in İmralı. The doors must be opened for the good of all.”

The rally, under the slogan ‘We Resist the Plot, We Meet in Amed for Freedom’, aims to send a powerful message to the government, urging them to shift from war to peace.