CHP says Palestine’s Fatah feels ‘ignored’ by Turkish government

Rifat Başaran – ANKARA

AA photo

A delegation to Israel and Palestine from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said the Fatah party in Palestine resents being “ignored” by the Turkish government.

A delegation of CHP representatives, headed by CHP Deputy Chair Öztürk Yılmaz, visited Israel and Palestine last week, meeting with local officials to talk about finding a peaceful solution to the long-running dispute.

Yılmaz said Fatah felt marginalized by the Turkish government, which has taken Hamas as its main point of contact in addressing the issue. 

“The Palestinian administration in the West Bank is sensitive about the fact that the [Turkish] government consistently holds talks with Hamas. They feel disappointed. Fatah has the feeling that it has been ousted by Turkey, which it says is only interested in one part of Palestine,” he added. 

Meanwhile, another group of CHP representatives, again headed by Yılmaz and also consisting of CHP deputy Utku Çakırözer and the CHP’s U.S. representative Yurter Özcan, held meetings in Washington with the White House, U.S. State Department, the Pentagon and members of the U.S. Congress. 

The visit reportedly focused on foreign policy issues and the CHP delegation gave two messages in Washington regarding the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), over which relations between the NATO allies have become strained. 

The first of these messages was that the PYD should differentiate itself from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and secondly the U.S. should put pressure on the PYD to make that happen and for the PYD to stop engaging in actions with the PKK.

Turkey has been in fierce armed clashes with the PKK since the mid-1980s, in which tens of thousands of people from both sides have been killed. A more than two-year-long peace process was abandoned in July 2015 amid renewed fighting.