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No sabotage, provocation or trap will veer us away from the goal of a terror-free Türkiye, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Wednesday.
“While breaking the wheels of corruption on one hand, we take steps to free Türkiye from the scourge of terrorism,” Erdoğan said during a graduation of the police academy in the capital Ankara.
“With our terror-free Türkiye process, we will, God willing, close an era filled with pain and tears and open wide the doors to a new era centered on brotherhood, peace, prosperity and development.”
The initiative was launched by government ally Devlet Bahçeli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who called on the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan, to appeal to the PKK to lay down arms last year.
Soon, his call evolved into a new initiative that saw Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmakers visiting Öcalan in the island prison where he is incarcerated in the Marmara Sea. As a result and in a landmark development, the PKK in May announced its dissolution and the end of its four-decade terror campaign that cost tens of thousands of lives in Türkiye, as well as in Iraq and Syria. Most recently, in a ceremony across the border in Iraq this month, PKK members destroyed their weapons as part of the process.
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesperson Ömer Çelik also spoke on the issue the same day following the party’s Central Executive Committee (MYK) meeting.
He said Erdoğan, during his speech at the MYK, conveyed that the party must give utmost importance to the process and that some circles attempt to sabotage the initiative through causing confusion on the PKK’s laying down of arms.
“The terror-free Türkiye process, which Ankara has implemented as a state policy, will be carried out with great sensitivity and meticulousness. The AK Party will demonstrate the necessary sensitivity to maintain high energy levels and achieve results. This is being demonstrated by the People’s Alliance,” he said.
Çelik said that while the initiative will lead Türkiye to get rid of terrorism, it will also be a source of inspiration for the region.
Parliamentary commission
Ankara is at the same time also working on legal steps, establishing a parliamentary commission to follow up on the process of the PKK dissolving itself. This committee will make recommendations to the Parliament speaker regarding both administrative and legal regulations.
Çelik said that the commission would be announced within days.
“Here, our speaker’s sensitivity is to carry out this in a comprehensive manner, where all elements, all dynamics, and all political representations of Türkiye are reflected,” he added.
He once again reiterated that all parties must contribute to the process resulting positively.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Özgür Özel also touched on the issue, saying: “The idea for this commission is ours. This commission must take the Kurdish issue in Türkiye as a whole within the scope of democratisation.”
Meanwhile, DEM Party Şırnak lawmaker Nevroz Uysal Aslan similarly said he expected the commission to begin works soon.
“From the very beginning, we have said that the establishment of this commission would create a legal basis for peace and democracy and strengthen social participation,” he said.
Aslan added that civil society should also be part of the commission’s works.
