BDP Chairman Selahattin Demirtaş ‘Kurds will not be silenced’.

by Ruwayda Mustafah Rabar

BDP Chairman Selahattin Demirtaş delivered a passionate speech in London. He addressed the Kurdish community, and highlighted Kurdish grievances. His speech was live-streamed, and tweeted. We were unable to receive a transcript of his speech, but the highlights of it were tweeted by numerous Kurdish activists.

The Kurdish Community Centre (KCC) was overcrowded, people were ushered into a second hall. The conference started with one minute silence been observed in memory of Kurds killed by the Turkish state.

Feisal Bani tweeted highlights from Selahattin Demirtaş:

No one can choose whether or not the Kurds can be educated in their own language, apart from Kurdish people [1]

Despite receiving 2.5 Million votes, we are still called terrorists. [2]

The way to peace can only be built by recognising the rights and demands of the people, whether in Turkey or anywhere else. [3]

Turkey is building a private army, why would they create one if they are sincere? [4]

In the 1990s Kurdish people were randomly murdered to strike fear in the hearts of people, and this is now repeated through arbitrarily arrests of Kurdish people. [5]

They feel it is an achievement to arrest innocent people through night raids since they are incapable of silencing the people. [6]

Those who sell their leaders can never achieve anything, we are not those people. [7]

They have arrested more than 6000 of us, that leaves 15 Million to go. Let us see which is large, their prisons or the people. [8]

If Southern Kurdistan wants to declare freedom as an answer to the demands of their people, then we can only respect that. [9]