CHP, HDP address ‘belated’ Jarablus operation

Meanwhile, the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) argued that the AKP government had dragged the country into “a vortex of war without even feeling the need to consult with parliament, which is the will of the people.”

“ISIL continues being one of the most significant threat elements for the region and Turkey,” Selin Sayek Böke, the spokesperson for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said at a press conference after CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu chaired a regular meeting of his party’s Central Executive Board (MYK).
Böke called ISIL a “monster.”

“Unfortunately, the issue of fighting against this monster both inside and outside has run too late,” she added.

“From here, we are once more making an open call to the government. We are calling [on the government] to [engage in] a sincere fight against ISIL, not only in Jarablus, but also inside our own territories,” Böke said.
Concerning Operation Euphrates Shield, the HDP’s MYK released a written statement in which they said that “Turkey has de facto entered the Syrian war.”

“What needs to be done, instead of the government policies which can be summarized as ‘War inside, war outside,’ is an urgent return to the resolution process in order to ensure Turkey’s civil peace and forming an alliance with Kurds and other democratic forces outside of the country,” the HDP said.

This year, Turkey has been hit by its worst violence in years, after a fragile peace process was shattered in July 2015 following a two-and-a-half-year de facto cease-fire between security forces and PKK militants.

The PKK is listed as terrorist organization by Turkey as well as the European Union and the United States. In late December 2012, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time, personally made public that intelligence agents were meeting with the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, in an attempt to end the three-decade-long conflict between Turkey’s security forces and the PKK.