President Barzani to HDP delegation: 'time has come' for peaceful Kurdish question resolution in Turkey
The HDP delegation, headed by party co-chair Sezai Temelli, arrived in Erbil on Saturday to meet with Kurdistan Region officials to discuss “regional issues and the unity of Kurds.”
"The time has come for peace and the Kurdish question in Turkey will have to only be through peaceful channels," a statement from the Kurdistan Region Presidency quoted Barzani as saying.
"Conflict does not resolve anything and no opportunity to bring about peace in Turkey should be missed."
As president, Barzani said he will “spare no efforts" in his push for peaceful resolution success in Turkey.
Though the statement made no explicit reference to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), both the HDP and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) helped facilitate attempts at a peace deal between the group and Turkey in 2013.
The PKK, a group fighting for increased Kurdish rights in the country, have fought an often armed conflict with Ankara for close to four decades.
Though peace deal negotiations brought about the first comprehensive ceasefire between the two sides in 2013, the detente broke down two-and-a-half years later.
The allowance of visits to imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for the first time in 8 years at the beginning of May appeared to show potential for resumption of a PKK-Turkey peace process. However, Turkish force operations against PKK targets escalated with the launch of Operation Claw in the Kurdistan Region later that month.
The HDP has itself faced the wrath of Turkish authorities, particularly after a failed military coup attempt in July 2016 led to the arrest of both HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag - despite their condemnation of the coup - as well as thousands of party members.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly accused the HDP of having links to the PKK, designated a terror organization by Ankara.
The most recent crackdown saw the removal of three democratically-elected HDP mayors in the Kurdish cities of Diyarbakir, Van and Mardin on August 19 for alleged financial assistance to the PKK. Hundreds of party members were arrested nationwide.
As for this weekend’s meetings, the HDP delegation "thanked efforts Mr. Nechirvan Barzani has made for peace [in Turkey] and reiterated that peace will be in the interest of all nations of Turkey," the KRP statement read.
The delegation on Saturday met with Masoud Barzani, leader of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), in Erbil, who echoed calls for peaceful resolution of Kurdish issues in Turkey.
“No issue, including that of Kurdish nation, can be resolved by conflict. Peaceful political solutions prevail," read a statement from the Barzani Office on Saturday.
The delegation is next expected to meet the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), then head to Sulaimani province on Monday to meet with Iraqi President Barham Salih and Sulaimani-based political parties, head of HDP office in Kurdistan Region Muzeyyen Gunes told Rudaw before the delegation arrived.
Temelli, the ethnically Turkish co-chair of the HDP, told journalists on Saturday in Erbil that they are fighting for peace not only for Turkey but globally.
“The fight is not limited to Kurdish borders. If there is no peace in the Middle East, there will be no peace for the whole world,” he said.
The HDP was founded in 2012 in defense of Kurdish cultural and political rights, but later sought to broaden its range of supporters. Co-led by Temelli, an ethnic Turk from Istanbul, the party is now supported by Kurds, Turks, Alevis and others.
Rudaw
