In an interview with ANF, Murat Karayilan, the President of the People’s Union of Kurdistan-KCK Executive Council, has gone through the reasons why the Kurdish Movement has decided to call off the ceasefire on 1 March.

Karayilan stated that "When we declared the unilateral ceasefire on 13 August 2009, we had listed the 5 points that we considered essential to make the ceasefire turn into a permanent process. We both declared these points to the public and to the other involved parties."

Karayilan added that "These points are the ordinary steps to be taken to make the process permanent. They are requests the government could be able to do if it wants because they are the points necessary to enter the solution process. In another words they are not the solution of the problem but a way to start discussing about a solution, they prepared the ground in which a solution proposal can be discussed."

Karayilan then added that "We have often repeated this since the unilateral ceasefire we declared on 13th April 2009 as they are necessary for the ceasefire to become bilateral and a permanent ceasefire. What we say is: “There is a problem, the parties involved need to discuss the problem and appropriate conditions need to be created for the discussion. The parties need to abandon their attitudes aimed to weaken each other. These are the things to be taken and implemented if we really want an honest solution”."

The five points listed by the PKK were:
1- Suspension of military and political operations,
2- Release of Kurdish politicians arrested within the scope of the so called KCK Operation,
3- Involvement of Kurdish leader Ocalan in the search for a solution of the problem and consequently improving his conditions to enable him to play a role in the solution,
4- Establishment of Constitutional Commission and Facts Research and Justice Commission,
5- Removal of 10 percent election threshold that exists nowhere in the world.

Karayilan underlined that "Our leadership expresses the expectation of the state’s taking a step until Newroz." Repeating what Ocalan had said last week, Karayilan stressed the importance of the next weeks. "We of course, take this perspective of our leader seriously. Our leader said to be hopeful about new phase of the ceasefire as a self defence stance rather than an offense stance. He said to be hopeful about the ongoing dialogues."

Karayilan concluded that "We will carefully watch this process which is no doubt quite important. I hope positive developments will be experienced. But I clearly need to mention that positive developments should not be expected without practical steps. Despite everything, all this shows that March is a transitional month, it is an interim period. This month, AKP government's approach to mass demonstrations and its policy concerning the solution of the problem will have an important role in determining the color of the process."

Commenting the ongoing arrests of Kurdish politicians, Karayilan said KCK could resume detentions of AKP leader.

KCK Executive Council President Murat Karayilan announced that the KCK High Court of Justice could arrest AKP members it finds guilty unless the AKP government's policy towards Kurdish politicians changes. Karayilan specified that the High Court of Justice has suspended the arrest decision on the subject for now and the policies will become clear as of March.

KCK Executive Council President Murat Karayilan evaluated to ANF the accusations of Prime Minister Erdogan against BDP, the reactions to the end of the inaction decision, the concrete demands of the Kurdish people, the debates on house arrest" for Öcalan and the provocations in Yüksekova. Karayilan, referring how the process could become softer, made significant expressions about the legal initiatives of KCK High Court of Justice. Karayilan emphasized that they do not want any tension or exuberance to arise in March, remarking that Öcalan’s conditions need to be bettered fort he solution of the Kurdish problem.

"We are making policy, not war. The opposite side - said Karayilan - wants to get results by driving us into a corner.  It wants to benefit from the ground we created, receive more than fifty percent of the votes, intending to make us marginal and discharge us. This political understanding is what ended the inaction. All patriotic, democratic circles, civil society organizations in Kurdistan should see this fact. If someone still does not see this fact, I'd doubt their sincerity. Each sincere and conscience bearing Kurdistan citizen absolutely need to see this fact. We have done all we could to solve this problem through peaceful methods but the power against us is persistently imposing the denial mentality and the discharge. We could no more continue the ceasefire process against all these impositions."