The central executive board of the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) released a statement on the seventh anniversary of the ‘Dolmabahçe Consensus’, the historical peak reached in the talks between the Turkish authorities and Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), for resolving the Kurdish question in a peaceful way.
The ‘Dolmabahçe Consensus’ was brushed off by the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who eventually abruptly ended the ‘peace talks’ saying, “There is no consensus.”
The recent HDP statement underlined that a re-implementation of the consensus was an urgent need for Turkey to resolve its current economic and political crisis, and to have it’s global risks under control.
The statement read:
“On February 28th, 2015, an important step was taken for the resolution of the Kurdish question and the democratisation of Turkey. The Dolmabahçe Consensus was declared to the public and a roadmap for peace and freedom was drawn. The consensus was the foremost important document in the history of the Republic of Turkey in terms of a democratic negotiation seeking peace. The consensus was based on a democratic solution to the 100-year-old problems that the Republic of Turkey has been facing, and brought a new approach to the relations between the state and the citizens, giving a founding role to democracy.”
It continued:
“The rejection of the Dolmabahçe Consensus triggered political and economic catastrophes that could last for decades. No progress in any field of public interest has been made in Turkey since the rejection of the consensus, and instead the citizens of Turkey have been [doctrinally] poisoned. In the seven years that passed since the declaration of the Dolmabahçe Consensus, democracy has been placed under custody like it has never been before in the history of Turkey, and a pro-coup mindset has been made permanent.”
The statement concluded:
“The consensus is an urgent need for Turkey to resolve its crisis and to have the global risks under it’s control. Therefore we are inviting all political representatives in Turkey to take part in efforts to implement the Dolmabahçe Consensus, not just for saving the day, but for saving the future of the people of Turkey.”
