There is ‘great consensus’ between parties, Erdoğan says on new Kurdish opening

Duvar English

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Jan. 11 attended provincial party congresses of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the southeastern Diyarbakır and Şanlıurfa provinces. 

The congresses coincided with the government’s recent seeming reconciliation efforts with the Kurds. 

In the Şanlıurfa congress, Erdoğan said a “great consensus” between political parties had emerged regarding the new opening. 

“The era of those who exploited our region through terrorist organizations is over. The era of using terror as a weapon and tool is completely over. The separatist organization has no choice but to dissolve itself. Terrorism and democracy cannot exist side by side. Terror and politics cannot coexist. Either those weapons will be buried or those pointing guns at Turkey will be buried. Other than that, there is no third way, no alternative,” he said. 

“There is hope and a very favorable atmosphere for the end of terrorism and the consolidation of fraternity. We find this positive atmosphere in the political scene very valuable. We are in consensus as the People's Alliance,” he added.

Despite some seeming efforts, the government’s crackdown efforts on the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party did not slow down as it has been continuing to oust the latter’s mayors and arresting its political members. 

In the Diyarbakır congress, Erdoğan said new developments in the Middle East opened “a new and important window of opportunity before our country to end the scourge of terrorism,” referring to the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

“We are at the stage of breaking the last link of the imperialist game that has caused this nation so much pain for almost half a century, separated it from its children, and darkened the future of this nation, God willing,” he added.

Erdoğan also stressed that the efforts had only “one goal,” that is “the dissolution of the terrorist organization, the unconditional surrender of weapons, the complete removal of the organization's tutelage over politics…”

Background

Erdoğan ally, far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli in early October started making seeming reconciliation efforts regarding the Kurdish issue.

Bahçeli, who previously called for the closure of the DEM Party on several occasions, invited Öcalan to announce the dissolution of the PKK at the parliament in exchange for the possibility of his release and surprised many people. 

Then, DEM Party lawmakers Pervin Buldan and Sırrı Süreyya Önder met the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, for talks on his island prison on Dec. 28.

Following the meeting on the İmralı Island, Öcalan said he was “ready to take (the) necessary positive step and make the call,” in response to Bahçeli.

DEM Party politicians Buldan, Önder, and Ahmet Türk also visited political parties at the Parliament, including MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli.

Öcalan has been serving a life sentence in a prison on the İmralı Island since his capture 26 years ago.

On Jan. 11, the MHP said, "Everybody wins with PEACE," a rhetoric which they rarely used before.

Turkey and its Western allies deem the PKK a "terrorist" group. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which in the past was focused in the mainly Kurdish southeast but is now centered on northern Iraq, where the PKK is based.

One major development in the region has been the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria last month. Turkey has repeatedly said there would be no place for the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara sees as an extension of the PKK, in Syria's future.