An adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Mehmet Uçum, has denied that Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are looking for peace talks. Instead, he defined peace talks as a strategy from the past that did not produce results and therefore would not be resorted to by the state. Efkan Ala, AKP Deputy Chair, said that the AKP and MHP have no plans to meet or negotiate with the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan.
The statements of the two politicians come after the unexpected handshake between MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party Co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan. The handshake raised discussions about whether it could be seen as a sign of a change in the attitude of Turkey’s ruling AKP and MHP towards the Kurds.
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In a tweet, Uçum said the state had opted for “strong and effective political and military strategies”. Since the collapse of the last peace talks with the Kurdish leader of the PKK in 2015, Turkey has been attacking Kurdish-populated areas inside and outside Turkish territory. Addressing the DEM Party, Uçum accused it of providing terrorist tutelage in parliament. He also threatened that if the DEM Party “does not make use of the opportunity to get rid of the terrorist tutelage offered to it socially and politically, or if it abuses this opportunity, then the terrorist tutelage carried out through the DEM in the Parliament will be eliminated through the law. This is also an unavoidable reality.”
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On the same day, the co-chairs of the DEM Party, Bakırhan and Hatimoğulları, held a closed meeting with journalists in which they expressed the importance of achieving peace with the Kurds. They stressed the importance of taking concrete steps towards the recognition of the Kurdish people and their rights, including cultural and linguistic rights. They also emphasised the need to make progress on the rights of political prisoners. “If peace is truly desired, certain conditions must be met. Lifting Öcalan’s isolation, implementing European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings, and alleviating the situation in prisons are necessary steps,” said co-chair Hatimoğulları. Bakırhan concluded the meeting, stating that the DEM Party, as a democratic force and the third-largest party in Turkey, is ready to be an actor if a dialogue is to be started.
It is noteworthy that in the past few days, other politicians of the DEM Party have also expressed the need to carefully evaluate the statements of the Turkish government and to demand accountable steps for a democratic and peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.
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