Peace process is work of 11 years, says Turkish deputy prime minister

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay speaks at the Arab-Turkish Congress of Social Sciences (ATCOSS) on May 2. AA photo

The ongoing peace process is an evolved stage of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) progress that has been going on for the past 11 years, Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay said today during his speech at the Arab-Turkish Congress of Social Sciences (ATCOSS).

“The solution process today is a new stage of the work we have been doing for the past 11 years. If you see the AKP party program from 11 years ago you will find the main framework of what we are doing today,” Atalay said.

AKP did not conduct “daily politics,” Atalay added, stating that his party always aimed at “deep rooted changes.”

AKP had to mostly lead these changes on its own, Atalay said, directing criticism at the academic world.
 
“The universities had very little role in these changes. We received no academic support, instead the universities ended up showing status-quo reflexes,” Atalay said.

The Congress, in its third year with previous locations of Ankara and Cairo, had a series of foreign guests, including Mohammed Elmadhoun, the Palestinian Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture and Assistant to the Egyptian President Pakinam Sharkawy.

Elmadhoun, who was also one of the speakers at the opening ceremony, used his speech to highlight Turkey’s support for the Palestinians, defining Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s planned visit as “significant.”

“[The visit] is a wonderful and great show of support to the Arab World. Turkey has always been and will always be the most trustworthy supporter [of Palestine],” Elmadhoun said.