Parliament sole ‘venue for peace,’ CHP says

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) reiterated April 21 that it is ready to aid a government-led resolution process to end the three-decade-old conflict between security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but only if the process is conducted under Parliament’s roof.

Speaking at a press conference in İzmir, CHP Deputy Chair Sezgin Tanrıkulu recalled his party’s proposal concerning the Kurdish issue. Back in June 2012, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss the CHP’s 10-point “road map” foreseeing the establishment of two commissions, inside and outside Parliament, to shape the way to solve the Kurdish issue.

The CHP at the time voiced its readiness for a resolution which would be shaped via the reconciliation of all four parties in Parliament, Tanrıkulu said. Although the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the CHP control 75 percent of the seats in the Parliament, the key task is persuading the remaining 25 percent, Tanrıkulu said.

“We should have the tools with which we could persuade that segment. Then, the prime minister ensured the BDP [the Peace and Democracy Party] and the MHP [the Nationalist Movement Party] would stay out of the process from the very first day by very harshly criticizing them. Hence both the Wise Persons’ [Commission] and the parliamentary investigation commission [to oversee the process] have been wrongly shaped,” he said. If the AKP is sincere in its will for a resolution, then it should support these bills in Parliament, he said.