Ahmet Türk, a veteran Kurdish politician who was recently released from prison due to health problems, said that it was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who ended the reconciliation process with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) when he could not receive the desired results from June 7, 2015 elections.
In an interview with daily Habertürk that was published on Sunday, Türk said that ¨it is known that it was the president who aborted the process after June 7 elections.¨ In those elections, Erdoğan’s former party could not receive the required majority in the parliament to form a single party government. In repeat elections of November 1, 2015 after a surge in violence in the country, Erdoğan’s party has come to power as a single party government again.
Türk who has been a target of crackdown against Kurds over decades was also critical of the PKK. He said that despite Erdoğan’s willingness to end the reconciliation process, if it was up to him, he would have waited patiently for all clues to appear before taking action. ¨Immediate action in post- June 7 process was a mistake for Kurds¨ the veteran Kurdish politician pointed out. Türk said that the end result have been a cycle of violence.
Turkey has stepped up its crackdown on Kurdish politicians in recent months. Trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast, while Turkish courts have been continuing to arrest several pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies including the party’s co-chairs. (turkishminute.com) Feb. 26, 2017
