BDP ready to negotiate, co-leader Demirtaş says

DİYARBAKIR - Anatolia News Agency

Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) co-leader Demirtaş says negotiations ought to restart between the government and the BDP, and should include experts. AA photo

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) is ready to negotiate if the government displays a courageous and sincere attitude, but no one should expect the BDP to treat the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as enemies, the BDP’s co–leader Selahattin Demirtaş has said.

“We said we would hold negotiations if we see a serious, sincere and courageous [power] before us. Excuse us, however, if they come to us with a [demand] to treat the PKK and Öcalan with hostility and betray the grassroots who elected us,” Demirtaş told members of press on April 6 in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

The Prime Minister had no intention to negotiate from the very start, he said, adding they did not know whether it was the government, the religious community, the military or the ministers who occasionally visit them that they should discuss with.

“The Kurdish people now represent a [power] in the Middle East. The AKP (Justice and Development Party) has to get this straight. The AKP has to seek peace with the 40 million Kurds in the Middle East,” Demirtaş said.

Negotiations, such as the ones held with jailed PKK leader Öcalan and in Oslo, ought to restart, and they should include non–governmental organizations and experts, alongside the BDP, he added.

“We cannot use an imploring language, however, while we are facing a power constantly trying to crush and insult us,” he said.

Demirtaş also called a recent plan revealed by the government for the implementation of economic incentives in Turkey’s less developed areas an attempt to bribe the Kurds and Kurdish business people.