Turkish PM: Resolution process a litmus test for everyone

ANKARA

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says the government is determined to finalize the peace process. DAILY NEWS photo, Selahattin SÖNMEZ

The ongoing process to find a permanent solution to terror is a litmus test that will explicitly show who favors a resolution and who favors a continuation of grievances, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.

Erdoğan said the government was determined to finalize the process with success and warned his party’s members against all kinds of smear campaigns that they may face. “We expect politicians and those who have responsibility to show the same sensitivity. This process is a litmus test and at the same time a sincerity test. Some 75 million people will more clearly see who is standing where along this process and I’m sure they will appreciate it in the best way,” Erdoğan said.

The prime minister’s remarks came at an expanded meeting of provincial chairs of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Erdoğan also used the opportunity to calm probable concerns among the party grassroots about the process to end the three-decade long conflict between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). He said the process was not at all meant to give concessions to the PKK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the majority of the international community.

Sensitive process

“There are segments that will lose all kinds of benefits with the end of the terror problem in Turkey. They will do and they are doing their best to block the progress of this sensitive process. These circles will undertake and are undertaking every route to confuse the nation with insults, accusations and fabricated gossip,” Erdoğan said, stressing that all their efforts were being exerted within a legitimate framework.

“We will preserve our calmness and common sense vis-à-vis all kinds of provocation. We whole-heartedly want a resolution,” he said.

Erdoğan also emphasized that no concessions would be made to the PKK, or to terrorism. “Our security forces will continue their operations until the terror organization lays down its arms and ends its attacks,” he said.

Erdoğan also mocked Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli for the calculation in which he outlined that the AKP would raise its votes from 50 percent to 70 percent if it finalizes the ongoing process with success. “This means that the nation and the prime minister understand each other,” he said, ironically congratulating Bahçeli for his calculation.