Main opposition ‘will be glad if PKK lays down arms’

DENİZLİ – Doğan News Agency

AA Photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said he would be pleased if the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) disarms.

“We will be glad if the PKK lays down its arms,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on Feb. 13 in the southwestern province of Denizli, after a question on reports that the government and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) are set to make a key joint statement on the issue.

Traffic in Ankara on the Kurdish peace talks is getting busier, with government officials giving positive messages after meetings with HDP members for a number of days. The HDP has been mediating the talks between government officials, the jailed leader of the PKK Abdullah Öcalan, and the PKK headquarters since late 2012.

Kılıçdaroğlu recently harshly criticized the government over the Kurdish issue, saying it could not be solved through security measures, in reference to a controversial government-led draft bill granting the police wide-ranging new authorities.

“The Kurdish issue can only be solved with a first class democracy and freedom, not security measures,” the CHP head said in an interview.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the HDP was at a “crossroads” and had to “choose whether or not to embrace the whole society.”

Compensation

Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu also commented on a recent court decision that convicted the Prime Ministry over the leaking of a report that included illegitimate records related to himself, while ordering it to pay compensation.

“So there are judges in this country. Aspersions were cast on me. Then-prime minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] should give an account for it too,” he told journalists after leaving a meeting with local artists on Feb. 13.

The 10th Chamber of the Council of State ruled that the Prime Ministry was at “serious fault” for claiming and leaking to the press illegitimate records about Kılıçdaroğlu. The Council of State subsequently ordered the Prime Ministry to pay compensation to Kılıçdaroğlu over the leak.