Peace process first step to Greater Kurdistan: Turkish main opposition

ANKARA

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) says his party will not be involved in the ‘bargaining’ process between the government and the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. AA photo

The leader of the main opposition party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, has claimed that the ongoing peace process in Turkey is in fact the first phase of a more comprehensive plan to establish a Greater Kurdistan on the territories of Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

“In the first phase of this plan, Turkey will enjoy Northern Iraq’s oil and natural gas sources within certain limits. The AKP’s [Justice and Development Party] mission in this phase is to become the surrogate mother of Greater Kurdistan. The Greater Kurdistan will be established not only on Syrian and Iraqi territories but also on Turkish territories,” leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said in an interview with the daily Hürriyet over the weekend.

The plan also envisages the establishment of an alliance between Israel in order to establish a Greater Kurdistan he said. Kılıçdaroğlu, who remained cold to the AKP’s calls to join the efforts to resolve the terror problem and the Kurdish question added an external dimension of why his party will not stand with the ruling party in this bid.

Öcalan’s road map

“The process is being run in line with the road map drafted by Öcalan. The AKP is supporting the Democratic Union Party’s (PYD) efforts to gain control in the northern Syria in order to divide Syria. Following PYD’s control will be provided, northern parts of Iraq and Syria will be united and access to Mediterranean will also be possible,” he claimed.

Kılıçdaroğlu vowed that his party would not become part of an ongoing alliance between the head of the government and the imprisoned terrorist leader but underlined that they were still working toward the people’s expectations for ending terror and resolving the Kurdish issue.

“The AKP’s strategy is to carry out this process with a unilateral and non-transparent approach and in cooperation with Abdullah Öcalan by excluding the Parliament. It’s not possible for the CHP to become a part of this negotiation between [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and Öcalan,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

For Kılıçdaroğlu, Erdoğan’s strategy in forcing the CHP to take part in this process is to find a potential scapegoat on which he would put all the blame in case of the collapse of this process.

“According to us, the address of the resolution is the Parliament. For the AKP however, the address is Öcalan. While the AKP brought a non-returnable legitimacy to the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party], it also allowed Öcalan to become the official counterpart of Turkey,” he said. Criticizing the government for not sharing information about negotiations and developments, Kılıçdaroğlu said this strategy of the AKP did not leave any room for the CHP to become a part of these talks.

The legality of this process has vital importance, according to the main opposition leader, who urged the government to pay attention not to violate the principles of the rule of law during the withdrawal of the PKK members. Underlining that the PKK should declare their intention to cease all forms of terrorist and violent acts against the Republic of Turkey and to surrender their weapons, he said, adding that this was the point the PKK leaders had avoided in their recent statements.