Demirtas suggests accelerated process for Kurdish bid

MESOP : A FRUITLESS GAME – DEMIRTAS REMINDS DAVUTOGLU / DAVUTOGLU REMINDS DEMIRTAS

13 Nov 2014 – Kurdpress – Selahattin Demirtas, the co-leader of Turkey Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has urged the government to accelerate the Kurdish resolution process, underlining that delaying the process would result in more provocations.

 “Our party is in favor of launching new meetings that we can call ‘negotiations,’ through which all of its dimensions can be discussed. Both our delegation [visiting jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan] and our party is ready for that. We want quick steps and accelerated negotiations. The developments in the Middle East, especially in Syria, do not allow us to delay the process,,” Demirats told daily Hurriyet on Nov. 12.

 “The dialogue can be resumed very soon if the government adopts a similar approach. But the negotiation format is up to the government. It should make a decision,” he said.

Demirtas’s statement came as the government and the HDP issued calls to each other to resume dialogue after weeks of tension due to Kurdish politicians’ reaction against the government’s perceived inaction over Kobani, a Kurdish populated Syrian town on the border that has been under siege by the Islamic State (IS) since late September. Street protests claimed the lives of more than 35 people on Oct. 6 and 7 and created an angry row between the government and the HDP that led the former to suspend ongoing talks in the peace process bid. “The government has taken the easy way out. It blamed the HDP and tried to save itself by kicking off a political lynch campaign against the HDP,” Demirats said.

 “The government is chasing the enemy at the wrong address. The danger is not the HDP; the danger is the problem itself, the open wound. There are so many circles who want to scratch this wound in the regional aspect. What we should do is heal the wound … As long as this wound is open, whether the HDP exists or not, there will always be some others who want to scratch it,” he added. Asked whether the process could overcome the turbulence witnessed recently, Demirats said there was no properly functioning negotiation process even before the unrest began. “After these recent incidents, the dialogue was cut. It should be resumed and should speedily turn into a negotiation process. It’s wiser to look at the future,” he said.