Turkish PM calls on HDP co-chair to ‘stop complaining about Turkey’ in Brussels

ANKARA

DHA Photo

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has called on Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş to return to the country and “give account of putting pressure on people, instead of complaining about Turkey in Brussels.”

Addressing civic society representatives late on Aug. 8, Davutoğlu noted Demirtaş had traveled to each and every country in Europe, but called on him to return to Turkey and say, “As a peaceful leader of a democratic political party, I think it’s better not to have any illegal structures in the country.”  

If the HDP now “calls on the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] to pull their hands back [from] the trigger, if they propose non-confrontation, then they should eliminate all those structures in the country which threaten the citizens,” Davutoğlu said.

It would be better if Demirtaş had made the call on the PKK for non-confrontation at the time when two police officers were killed, the prime minister said, adding making the call now was proper, even if it was late.

Nobody should think Turkey is going back to the situation in the country during the1990s, as democratic rights and freedoms are a requirement of the state’s “compassion” of today, he added.

PKK should lay down arms as a precondition

The Turkish government’s precondition to end military operations against the PKK is that the group should lay down arms, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Işık said.

“Our fight against terror will continue until the PKK lays down arms, until the disarmament,” Anadolu Agency quoted Işık as saying on Aug. 9. The precondition in the struggle against terror is “not having talks anymore, but the PKK should lay down arms,” the minister stated. 

The government is not in a position to say “there is a peace process, that’s why we won’t respond you,” he said, noting parties would have talks after the group lays down arms.