AKP deputy chair praises Zana’s words

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chair Hüseyin Çelik praised independent Kurdish deputy Leyla Zana, who expressed her belief that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan can resolve the Kurdish issue. 

“We found Zana’s remarks very important. I don’t agree with her a hundred percent, but most of her remarks are commonsensical and in favor of a solution. I hope other [Peace and Democracy Party] BDP lawmakers will act with such commonsense. The discourse of the so-called hawks within that community [BDP] does not make any contribution to a possible solution process,” Çelik told reporters yesterday.

Çelik also signaled that the BDP would be included in Erdoğan’s proposal of launching a process with main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for the solution of the Kurdish question together.

Commenting on the CHP’s proposals to establish a joint parliamentary commission, along with a wise people commission to discuss possible solution methods for the Kurdish issue, Erdoğan on Tuesday pressed CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to set a mechanism consisting only of representatives of their two parties should the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the BDP object to the CHP proposal.

Asked whether the AKP could let the BDP to join such a possible process, Çelik said: “Whoever wants to make a contribution to this [solution] process, we would welcome [them]. When there’s a fire, we would welcome whoever makes efforts to extinguish it.”

Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay, for his part, said the government will continue its reforms on the Kurdish issue. “The ruling term of the AKP is a rehabilitation era. We want to establish and improve a pluralist structure. [Elective Kurdish courses at schools] are the most important step for establishing this pluralist structure,” he said at the “Editor’s Desk” meeting of the state-run Anatolia agency,