Main opposition vows to reveal Oslo letters

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

CHP leader say they have not received any answers to their questions to AKP. DAILY NEWS photo

The main opposition party has said it is planning to make correspondence between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) public, if Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does not answer their questions about whether Turkey’s borders have been negotiated with the outlawed organization.

“We are waiting for answers to our questions. We have not yet received anything from them. Why? Could the government be making our national oath [Misak-I Milli] a matter for discussion with a terrorist organization? That’s why we are waiting,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told the private A Haber in an interview Sept. 14. The CHP will wait until Erdoğan returns from abroad, and will then begin gradually making the letters public if they do not hear anything from government officials.

CHP officials have claimed that they have obtained some letters written to senior PKK members by government and intelligence officials during secret Oslo talks in late 2009 and 2010. The secret Oslo talks came to the knowledge of the public after a voice recording between top intelligence officials and PKK members was leaked via the Internet.

On the ongoing discussion as to whether the parliamentary immunity of some Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) lawmakers should be lifted, Kılıçdaroğlu advised the AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to adopt a more commonsensical approach.

Linking Turkey’s aggressive Syria policy with the rise in terrorist attacks in Turkey, the main opposition leader accused the government of implementing the policies of Western powers rather than keeping their eyes on the national interests of Turkey. “They have criticized us for being pro-Baathist when we urge them on Syria. The polls now show the majority of Turkish people are against an intervention. Is the majority of Turkey now pro-Baathist?,” he asked.