Turkey’s leading business group visits BDP, lends full support to peace process

ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency

: BDP’s co-chairman Selahattin Demirtaş (2L), together with parliamentary group deputy chairs Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken, hosted TUSİAD’s delegation headed by chairman Muharrem Yılmaz (4R).

The ongoing peace process and the new Constitution preparations are a 'chance' for Turkey, Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) chairman Muharrem Yılmaz said April 12 following a visit to the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) parliamentary group in Ankara. 

“If the resolution process concludes successfully, with an agreement and a large consensus as we yearned for, and if it could be topped with a modern Constitution, then we could be very hopeful about Turkey’s future,” said Yılmaz. 
 
The resolution process will also have a positive impact on the economy, Turkey’s leading business association’s chairman argued. “A strong economy can only be ensured by a strong democracy,” he said noting that a strong economy was also necessary for a strong democracy. On behalf of the hosts, BDP deputy parliamentary group chair İdris Baluken also stressed that the discussion focused on the economic situation and the resolution process, describing the meeting as “very fruitful.”  

Yılmaz emphasized that TÜSİAD was attaching a lot of importance to the drafting of a new Constitution at a time when the parties in the Parliament’s Constitutional Reconciliation Commission were having trouble reaching a consensus. “However, we still cherish hope [for the commission’s work]. We think that the opportunity of upgrading Turkey’s democracy standards while guaranteeing our basic rights and freedoms, the separation of powers together with the judiciary’s independence, should be seized,” he said.