BDP ready for talks: Demirtaş

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) is ready to start talks with the government to prepare the ground for a negotiated settlement to the Kurdish conflict, the party’s co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said yesterday, while calling for transparency in the process.

Speaking at his party’s parliamentary group meeting, Demirtaş stressed that the government should first stop “insulting” the BDP and portraying it as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). “If you want to resolve the problem through negotiations, our door is open. We can lay the ground for negotiations together. We are ready to negotiate with the government to prepare the ground and the conditions for talks,” he said.

Demirtaş suggested that any possible meetings be broadcast live on television so the people can know the parties’ positions. “If this does not happen, we will still share everything with the people,” he said.

The BDP co-chair criticized the government’s approach of simultaneously carrying out a military campaign against the PKK while negotiating with Kurdish political groups. “You are only deluding yourself if you say you can fight terrorism on one hand and engage in negotiations on the other,” he said.

Demirtaş said the state’s attitude toward the Kurdish conflict has become “psychopathic” over the years. “They neither resolve the problem nor leave us alone. We’ve seen many packages and plans over the past 20 years. The only way to move beyond that is through sincere negotiations,” he said.