[AA.TR] ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairman Selahattin Demirtas has urged the Turkish government and armed members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to cease fire immediately.
Addressing the media at the HDP headquarters in Ankara Sunday, Demirtas said: "PKK weapons must be instantly silenced; their hands have to be taken away from triggers. The government should also state that operations against them would be stopped and it must open a dialog with an approach that would not include death."
He said that his party was taking into consideration all recent developments and was discussing ways to prevent further violence in the country.
"Unfortunately, we lose a son every day and the mothers of this country cry every day," he said. "No one has the right to make these mothers cry in a process, which was set off with the words: 'do not let mothers cry'. No one has the right to do this, to this country and to its mothers," he added.
He also said that the HDP party was against the use of violence and weapons, adding that the party deemed the recent acts of violence in the country as "unacceptable".
"These conflicts have to be stopped immediately," he said, adding that efforts were being made for a sincere new dialog where "no side deceives each other."