Kurdish peace process to close the 'doors of a dark era': Turkish PM Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

Erdoğan urged Turkish businessmen to invest to the eastern and southeastern regions. AA photo

The doors of a dark era will be closed at the end of the ongoing Kurdish resolution process and a brand new era will start, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said April 27 in his first remarks on the subject following the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) press conference announcing the starting date of the militant's withdrawal.

"What is approaching its end is not only 30 years of terrorism. It is a sequence of problems extending to much longer years," Erdoğan said at the Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association's (MÜSİAD) 22nd General Assembly, echoing the confident tone of the statements made a day earlier by key government officials.

Speaking to an audience composed mainly by entrepreneurs and industrialists, Erdoğan called on businessmen's associations to invest to the eastern and southeastern regions and assist their development. "When the chimney's of the factories start to emit smoke, when employment rises, the resolution process will be permanent," he said praising the initiatives undertaken by MÜSİAD. He also called on other major business organizations such as the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD), All Industrialist and Businessmen Association (TÜMSİAD), Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey (TUSKON) and Anatolian Lions Businessmen's Association (ASKON) to take due responsibility during the process.

Those not part of the solution will become part of the problem

The Turkish prime minister increased his tone in his criticism of the opposition, urging all parties to show their support for the process. "Those who are not part of the solution will become part of the problem. We opened our door wide so that the opposition could be part of the process. Unfortunately [they] preferred to stay out of it, and even be against it," he said, accusing both the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of hoping the process would fail.

"None of the fears that the MHP leader [Devlet Bahçeli] tries to instill is real. The only thing he wants is the continuation of the martyrs so that he can continue to take advantage of it, because the CHP and MHP know that when terrorism ends, there will be nothing they can take advantage of."

Erdoğan also dismissed CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's criticism that his party did not know about the details of the talks. "[Kılıçdaroğlu] does not see what everybody sees, does not understand what everybody understands," he said, adding with irony that the Wise Persons commissions, established to seek public support, could visit the CHP leader and explain the process.