Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has carried out more talks than any other political party with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said PKK executive Duran Kalkan in an exclusive interview with Medya Haber TV on Tuesday.
The PKK council member’s claims come while the ruling AKP continues to accuse the opposition of having ties with the guerrilla movement.
“They accuse everyone of having affiliated with the PKK. However, Tayyip Erdoğan had the most relations with the PKK; the AKP did. I mean, they also went to İmralı [Island Prison]. They had so many meetings with leader Apo*, they sent so many delegations to Qandil. The Tayyip Erdoğan administration itself sent those delegations. Everyone knows,” Kalkan said, referring to the peace process between 2013 and 2015 that aimed to resolve the conflict between Turkey and the PKK.
Kalkan emphasised that the AKP attempts to distract from its own past relations by pointing the finger at the opposition. “And now some are under this pressure as if being associated with the PKK is a crime. They respond by saying they are not,” Kalkan said.
Referring to a Turkish proverb which implies that criminals feel powerful when they present their victims as the guilty party, Kalkan added, “Really, a ferocious burglar overpowers the homeowner. How can the burglar do this? Is he very skilful? He is not. But his opponents are very weak. They don’t even have the power to defend themselves.”
There are more than 30 million Kurds within Turkey’s borders, the PKK official said. “There is no terrorism – there are injustices, there are attacks, there is inequality, there is Kurdish genocide. Kurds are ignored and wanted to be erased.”
Kalkan called on all people living in Turkey to empathise and put themselves in the Kurds’ shoes.
The AKP “have based their election propaganda on fighting us, against us”, Kalkan said. Government officials have in recent weeks used PKK executives’ comments on the elections in their campaigns against the opposition.
“Yes, as the PKK, we also support all libertarian and democratic parties. We will destroy the AKP-MHP fascism. We, too, have said this as everyone has said it,” Kalkan concluded. “We will win freedom and democracy.”
*During the peace talks, then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan revealed that the Chief of the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) Hakan Fidan had been holding meetings with PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı Island Prison in 2012.
