CHP ‘doors open’ to PM for Kurdish issue talks

ANKARA

Daily News Photo/ Selahattin Sönmez

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said his party is open to further discussions with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to seek a solution for the Kurdish issue.

“We had already expressed our view [on this issue]. Our doors are wide open. Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] probably misunderstood our stance when we said ‘our doors are open.’ We would meet them [again] when they come,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters yesterday in Parliament.

Speaking at his party’s parliamentary group meeting yesterday, Erdoğan recalled that the CHP proposed to establish a joint parliamentary commission, along with a “wise people” commission, to discuss possible solution methods for the Kurdish issue in June.

Erdoğan recalled that he had previously suggested setting up a commission consisting only of representatives from their two parties, leaving the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) out of the process. After stressing that the CHP had asked for a-three-month time period to elaborate their proposal Erdoğan reiterated his call to the CHP yesterday, stressing that “they are sincere in their call.”

Gültan Kışanak, co-chair of the Kurdish-issue-focused BDP said there is an urgent need for confidence-building measures in order to build a framework for dialogue and negotiation regarding a possible resolution to the Kurdish issue.