New charter process ‘under siege by militants’

ANKARA

While urging Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to speak out about a statement by Murat Karayılan, a senior leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who declared the withdrawal of the PKK on April 25, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Faik Öztrak argued that Karayılan’s remarks displayed how the proceeding constitutional negotiations have been under siege by the organization.

“The spokesman of the terrorist organization [Karayılan] has talked very clearly about which direction they want to go, he has explained each and every point they compromised on. The Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey cannot remain silent,” Öztrak said in response to reporters’ questions at a press conference at the Parliament on April 26.

Öztrak recalled that Karayılan said “We will withdraw to Kandil [Mountains in northern Iraq] with our weapons and we will be following the Constitution [drafting] process,” and added that these remarks meant that the Constitution drafting process was being kept under siege by “the terrorists’ weapons.”
When asked to evaluate the withdrawal decision of the PKK, Öztrak claimed that the government assigned the Kandil the role of a spokesman.