DEM Party responds to Alevi intellectuals' rejection of Öcalan's historical references

A group of 53 Alevi intellectuals has issued the ‘Alevi Intellectuals Declaration,’ rejecting statements made by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan regarding the historical alliance between Ottoman Sultan Yavuz Sultan Selim and İdris-i Bitlisi. The intellectuals described the referenced alliance as an “archaic and bloody alliance,” noting that the period associated with these figures involved the massacre of tens of thousands of Alevis.

While the declaration expressed support for a peaceful, disarmament-focused resolution to the decades-long Kurdish conflict and called for democratic legal steps in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, it criticized İmralı-centered statements for lacking credibility and referencing violent historical periods.

Tuncer Bakırhan, Co-Chair of the DEM Party, responded to the declaration with sharp criticism. He dismissed the intellectuals' reaction as “cheap politics” and questioned the intellectual identity of the signatories. Bakırhan asserted that the DEM Party remains the primary representative of Alevi struggles and rejected the notion that criticizing the Kurdish movement or Öcalan constitutes being an intellectual.