President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday called on political parties to work together to solve the country’s decade-long problem of terrorism amid the new peace process with the PKK.
Erdoğan, during an iftar dinner with deputies in Parliament in Ankara, said that significant distance was covered in a short period in efforts toward a terror-free Türkiye with the contribution of political parties in the Turkish Parliament.
“I believe that without delay, without causing any tension, provocation, any extremism, without resorting to acrobatics such as making things difficult, the expected result will be achieved quickly. Our aim has been extremely clear since the first day. We aim to permanently and definitively get rid of a scourge that has tied Türkiye’s hands for 40 years and caused tens of thousands of people to lose their lives,” he added.
Erdoğan underlined he believed this goal “will be achieved swiftly, without dragging things out too long.”
Saying that all parliamentarians should show sensitivity toward the issue, he added: “Let’s disappoint the enemies of Türkiye once again. Let’s thwart imperialist ambitions once more.”
The terrorist group declared a cease-fire with Türkiye in late February, following a landmark call by its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan asking the group to disband and end more than four decades of terror.
After several meetings with Öcalan at his island prison, the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) relayed his appeal for the PKK to lay down its weapons and convene a congress to announce the organization’s dissolution. Upon the call, the PKK announced a cease-fire.
After the last round of peace talks collapsed in 2015, no further contact was made with the PKK until October, when a nationalist ally of Erdoğan offered a surprise peace gesture if Öcalan rejected violence.
Erdoğan was seen during the iftar speaking on his feet with Dem Party deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who was part of the delegation that went to Imralı, a Marmara Sea island where Öcalan is incarcerated, to enable the process.
The dialogue comes after the Dem Party reportedly asked for a meeting with Erdoğan. A day earlier, answering reporters’ questions, Erdoğan said he was open to hosting the Dem Party delegation.
Media reports say the Dem Party will discuss “democratization” and “setting up a committee at Parliament” with opposition parties. “Democratization” refers to more rights for the Kurdish community, which the PKK exploited for a long time to justify its campaign of terrorism.
Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, for his part, said at the iftar, “It can be our fate to construct a new period in which the issue of terrorism will be sent to the dustbin of history in Türkiye through completing as soon as possible all parts of the terror-free Türkiye process, which has led to a positive atmosphere country-wide.”
“I would like to underline that the support that all political parties, whose representatives are here or are not in Parliament, will give to this process for the establishment of a terror-free Türkiye is an extremely important, vital stance that will be appreciated by the overwhelming majority of the nation. Without a doubt, our political parties in Parliament also have historical responsibilities and obligations in this process,” he highlighted further.
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