Group researching ‘peace’ with Kurds received by MILF

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – Anadolu Agency

An international group looking at ways to help Turkey’s Kurdish “solution process” has been visiting the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to discuss the ongoing peace initiative between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The Democratic Progress Institute (DPI), led by Turkish director Kerim Yıldız, was welcomed by ARMM Chief of Staff lawyer Rasol Mitmug Jr. on June 26, according to a press statement from the region’s Bureau of Public Information.

ARMM officials said they briefed Yildiz and his party, which advertises itself as an international group specializing in conflict resolution, on the region’s initiatives on the Bangsamoro transition.

On June 27, an official report on the MILF website said that group’s chairman, Mohagher Iqbal, and several commissioners of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission received the delegation at the commission’s office in Cotabato City.

“In the conversation that lasted four hours, issues on constitutional accommodations, art of negotiation and the protection for minority groups became prominent,” the statement said.

Hüseyin Oruç, vice president of the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, told Anadolu Agency that the trip involves ex-parliamentarians, journalists, and actors, including Ali Bayramoglu, Fadime Özkan, Yılmaz Ensaroğlu and Kadir Inanır.

“It’s not an official delegation. It is a trip organized by the DPI. They were meant to go there in October, 2014, but the October 6-7 incidents happened so they could not go,” he said.