Main opposition CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu vows to resolve Kurdish issue

Vecdi Erbay / DUVAR 

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on March 11 offered five key suggestions to solve the decades-old Kurdish issue.

Kılıçdaroğlu's comments came during a meeting held by the Dicle Social Research Center (DİTAM) in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

“The place to solve the problem is the parliament. Reconciliation commissions should be established in the parliament. Intellects from outside the parliament should join the commission,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

“The person who wants to solve the problem needs to be sincere and honest, should have no secret personal agenda and should not have engagements that they cannot reveal to the nation. Lastly, while the process continues, the parliament and the nation will be informed,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

“We will come to Diyarbakır more. I know we neglected it for many years. The Diyarbakır people also reproached this issue. The religion of the state is justice. Where there is no justice, there is no state. We need to provide justice,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Kılıçdaroğlu previously launched a campaign of “making amends” by acknowledging past failures and injustices made by the state in the country. 

Speaking of past mistakes of the state in the region, Kılıçdaroğlu said: “We have to face this mistake when there are young people killed in Roboski. We should at least apologize to their families. We have to see our mistakes and face them.” 

A total of 34 civilians, including 19 children, were killed in the airstrikes carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in the Roboski village of the Kurdish majority southeastern province of Şırnak on Dec. 28, 2011. The bombs left bodies dismembered, with families unable to identify their loved ones.

“I spoke to five people who were tortured in prisons in Diyarbakır. They couldn't hold back their tears. How will you face them? You will sit down and say that we made a mistake here. If you do not do this, you cannot achieve social peace. The Diyarbakır prison should be a museum. If the institution of politics matures, there will be no fighting in the society,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. 

(English version by Alperen Şen)