Main opposition reveals ‘Oslo Protocol’

ANKARA

DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) made a document public on Sept. 17 that the party claimed was the agreement hammered out by the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during talks between the two parties in Oslo.

CHP spokesman Haluk Koç made the document public at a press conference and claimed that a copy of the text, which he called the “Oslo Protocol,” is being kept in the archives of the United Kingdom, “the coordinator country” of the talks.

According to the CHP, the text was agreed upon by National Intelligence Organization (MİT) officials, including Hakan Fidan, who later became the chief of the agency, and representatives of the outlawed PKK that were held abroad between 2009 and 2011 in a series of meetings publicly known as the “Oslo talks.” The talks collapsed after a PKK attack killed 13 soldiers near Silvan, Diyarbakır in July 2011.

“I ask the prime minister: Did the coordinator country sign the declaration in the name of both sides? Here I have the agreement,” Koç said. The CHP did not display the official document it claims was signed by the government and the PKK, but instead presented a text Koç said reflected its contents.
The text distributed by Koç consists of nine articles. “The two sides agree that efforts for a permanent solution to the Kurdish issue should be predicated on a constitutional and legal framework,” one of the articles read.

According to the document, titled “AKP-PKK Agreement,” Turkey would allow two PKK representatives to visit Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK who is serving a life sentence in prison on İmralı Island, after the election in June, 2011. “The sides will stop all kinds of armed operations until June 15. Both sides have decided to meet again in the second half of June 2011 to deepen the negotiations and talk over the items on the agenda,” the text distributed by the CHP read.

“Did MİT chief Fidan tell the PKK, on the issue of education in mother tongues: ‘In any case you will have an autonomous region. Education, including the appointment of teachers, will be left to the municipalities’? Do you stand by these words?” Koç asked, adding that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would not have rushed through a law to protect Fidan if he had not.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) rushed the law in question through Parliament in February, when a prosecutor wanted to summon Fidan and three other top MİT officals for questioning on accusations that the MİT colluded with the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the PKK’s alleged urban wing, and its operatives engaged in violence. The probe targeting the MİT alarmed the government as it may also have been implicated, since Fidan and the other MİT officials summoned for questioning were all involved in the talks with the PKK, which were reportedly held on Erdoğan’s personal instructions.

Fidan, who was not chief of the agency at the time of the talks, reportedly said he was personally representing Erdoğan on the recordings that were leaked to the Internet.