TÜSİAD voices ‘disappointment’ over current phase of peace process

ANKARA

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Turkey’s leading business club has expressed “disappointment” over the current phase of the government-led Kurdish peace process, which it said it regarded as “a sine qua non for carrying out development and democratization” in the country.

“We have seen that it [the process] has a vital importance for removing the environment of violence and terror that has occupied Turkey’s agenda for 30 years and drowned us in grievances,” President Haluk Dinçer of the Turkish Industrial and Business Association (TÜSİAD) told reporters on Oct. 30.

“We have also noticed the resolution of the Kurdish problem, which we regard as an extension of Turkey’s democratization problem, has a vital importance for Turkey. We consider this process necessary in order for Turkey to be able to simultaneously carry out development and democratization. But the point to which we have arrived today is disappointing,” he added.

Dinçer, who was speaking after a meeting with main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, suggested that the process has not been proceeding “healthily” recently.

“Although we are not fully knowledgeable about the details, we believe the process is not being managed well,” he said.

He also warned that he did not want to put the blame on a particular side for the apparent failure, stressing that the failure belonged to all related parties and urging for the involvement of opposition parties and Parliament in the process.