PKK wants to restart negotiations: Report

LONDON

Aydar, who attended failed PKK talks, blames government for the failure. Hürriyet photo

The Turkish government is responsible for restricting the negotiation process in the Oslo talks, a senior member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Zübeyir Aydar, who was in attendance for the negotiations between Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and PKK, has said, adding that the PKK would like to see negotiations to begin again.

The PKK did what was necessary at all stages of the process, but the government did not keep their promises, suspended the issue and stopped the negotiations without informing the PKK, Aydar said, according to a report from the BBC’s Turkish service. In 2009 the Oslo process was progressing most quickly, Aydar said, adding that arrests in the KCK case began when the talks were inactive, and the arrests became the first action to harm the process.

The PKK’s last contact with the state was in May, 2011, when three protocols prepared by Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed PKK who is serving a life sentence in prison on İmralı Island, were determined to be documents for discussion, Aydar said. After that the PKK did not receive any reply from the government, even though they were supposed to receive a response in June, 2011.
Aydar said he was ready for the Oslo talks to restart. “We believe this matter must be solved with dialogue,” Aydar said, adding that the PKK would come to the table without conditions if the invitation came.

However, he said, “We have not been able to receive news from Öcalan for 424 days. Even though we made decisions as the executive board, we may face difficulties regarding implementation without him. He has said ‘I want health, security and freedom of movement in order to take part in this work.’”
The Oslo talks refer to meetings held between some senior PKK operatives and MİT officials in order to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem.