Positive acts should continue: Politician

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

If the government believes in peace, they should maintain their determination for a solution, Tuğluk says. DHA photo

The latest attack by militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that killed eight soldiers on the southeastern border should not be a barrier for taking positive steps on the Kurdish issue, a leading figure of Kurdish movement, Aysel Tuğluk, has said.

“Some say that there was an optimistic atmosphere [before the attack]. However, this was nothing but illusory rhetoric. That so-called optimistic atmosphere would have disappeared within a couple of days if the attack hadn’t taken place. We need concrete steps beyond optimistic remarks. If the government believes in peace, they should maintain their determination on a solution, despite such incidents,” independent deputy Tuğluk told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

The PKK’s latest deadly attack once again provoked questions about how the Kurdish conflict can be resolved. Critics say the attack has sabotaged the recent positive developments on the Kurdish issue, referring to the meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu over the Kurdish solution, as well as iconic Kurdish politician Leyla Zana’s positive statements on the issue.

However, Chair of the Participatory Democracy Party (KADEP) Şerafettin Elçi, who was elected as a deputy from the list of a bloc backed by the BDP, said that there was no “peaceful atmosphere” ahead of the attack, stressing that military operations in the southeast were still under way.

Tuğluk, who is also the co-chair of the umbrella Kurdish group the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), also said that a resolution of the Kurdish question would not be so easy, claiming that the government needed a “serious solution program [on the issue], if they are sincere.”

She suggested that talks between the government and the PKK should restart, alluding to secret Oslo talks between the PKK and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), which collapsed in 2011.
“The Oslo talks were interrupted, but there’s no reason not to restart them. There is a roadmap for a solution on which both sides agreed. You cannot ignore this roadmap. Talks with İmralı [where convicted PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is in prison] should restart as well. The wise people of Turkey should come together and a dialogue process should be launched, there’s no other way for a solution,” Tuğluk said.

In further comments, Tuğluk criticized the government over its attitude towards the BDP, referring to Erdoğan’s particularly harsh language against them. Recalling that Erdoğan called on Kılıçdaroğlu to build a mechanism to resolve the Kurdish issue excluding the BDP, Tugluk said: “The BDP is an actor for a democratic and legitimate solution process. How can you resolve this issue by ignoring the BDP.”