The goal of a terror-free Türkiye can be achieved through a common stance by the political parties in the Turkish Parliament, speaker Numan Kurtulmuş said on Sunday. “Steps have been taken toward a terror-free Türkiye. With groups linked to the PKK similarly laying down arms, Türkiye will erase this problem in its history,” Kurtulmuş quoted by the media at an iftar dinner with editors-in-chief of prominent Turkish newspapers on Sunday in Istanbul.
Emphasizing that the Parliament can step in when necessary to facilitate the issue, Kurtulmuş said that the assembly will discharge its responsibility.
“It is vital to establish unity in our geography through removing the scourge of terrorism from Türkiye’s and even the Middle East’s agenda while strengthening Türkiye’s internal front and togetherness,” he added.
Politics that have ties with terrorism are tolerated nowhere, the parliament speaker highlighted.
The terrorist group declared a cease-fire with Türkiye in late February, following a landmark call by its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan asking the group to disband and end more than four decades of terror.
After several meetings with Öcalan at his island prison, the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) relayed his appeal for the PKK to lay down its weapons and convene a congress to announce the organization’s dissolution. Upon the call, the PKK announced a cease-fire.
After the last round of peace talks collapsed in 2015, no further contact was made with the PKK until October, when a nationalist ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offered a surprise peace gesture if Öcalan rejected violence.
On claims that the two issues are connected, Kurtulmuş said: “The Imralı process (PKK) and efforts for a new constitution are not related. Both are separate issues not to be confused with each other,” Kurtulmuş reminded that work on a new constitution started more than a year before the PKK peace process.
Erdoğan’s government has been pushing to overhaul Tükiye’s Constitution for over a decade. The constitution was enforced in 1982 following a military coup that led to the detention of hundreds of thousands of people along with mass trials, torture and executions, which still represents a dark period in Turkish political history.
Erdoğan insists the Turkish nation is “owed a civilian, libertarian and inclusive” new constitution, and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has a comprehensive draft prepared by a scientific council during the pandemic, which it’s hoping to submit to Parliament.
Be First to Comment