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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday lauded a parliamentary committee’s decision to visit the terrorist group PKK’s jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan. “It is a decision that will contribute to the terror-free Türkiye process and accelerate an end to terrorism,” he said as he was answering questions by journalists on his way to Türkiye from South Africa, where he attended a G-20 summit over the weekend.
The terror-free Türkiye initiative launched by Devlet Bahçeli, chair of government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), took a new turn last week when a group of lawmakers agreed to visit Öcalan in the island prison where he was incarcerated. It was Bahçeli who urged lawmakers to hold talks with Öcalan in a recent speech and volunteered to go by himself if no one else did. The National Solidarity, Brotherhood and Democracy Committee of Parliament, set up last August to chart a road map for the initiative, approved the call. Three parties in the committee abstained from the visit. Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the MHP and pro-PKK Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) will send lawmakers to meet Öcalan this week.
Erdoğan said the parliamentary process on the initiative moved forward with dialogue between parties, pointing out to meetings of himself and his party’s officials with Bahçeli, as well as delegations from the DEM Party. “With this working model, we had progress without any glitches in the process. The parliamentary committee is particularly important for the contribution of different political parties to the initiative. The committee, chaired by the parliamentary speaker, did important work and we made every contribution to its work. We tried to keep the terror-free Türkiye initiative beyond politics,” the president said. He said the AK Party chose Hüseyin Yayman, a lawmaker for the Hatay province, for talks with Öcalan. “Mr. Yayman spent years working on this issue and was part of our Wise People delegation,” he said, referring to a past attempt to end PKK terrorism. “We will act sincerely, patiently, boldly and decisively to achieve our terror-free Türkiye goal,” Erdoğan said.
The terror-free Türkiye initiative took several critical turns after Öcalan’s written statement in February. The terrorist group announced it would heed Öcalan’s call last spring and started “burning weapons” in a ceremony in Iraq this summer. This month, it announced it had withdrawn from Zap, a former stronghold of terrorists in northern Iraq. This move was preceded by an October announcement that said the PKK withdrew all its members from Türkiye to Iraq.
Opponents of the terror-free Türkiye initiative have criticized planned talks with Öcalan, though Bahçeli says it is necessary to give voice to the initiative’s leading actor. The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has representatives in the parliamentary committee, shunned sending representatives to the delegation that will meet Öcalan.
CHP’s ‘octopus’
Erdoğan also hit out at the CHP, which is embattled with allegations of corruption at municipalities it runs. The president in the past has likened multiple corruption allegations to the tentacles of an octopus holding on to the CHP. Asked about his views on a recent indictment against the disgraced CHP’s Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, who faces a lengthy prison term on charges of corruption, Erdoğan said it was the state’s duty to prevent theft of public property. “We never allowed gangs or others to steal the nation’s money,” he said. “Rest assured that we will block any attempt to corrupt by those who are seeking new ways to inject cash into their ring of bribery,” he said.
Imamoğlu and his suspected accomplices are accused of thriving on bribery cash, both for themselves and for the CHP. Erdoğan pointed out recent remarks by CHP’s former leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who called the party “to come clean” about the investigations. “Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu, too, is disturbed by the mindset that dragged the CHP into a vortex of bribery, theft and corruption. Currently, the CHP is solely occupied by distracting society from serious allegations it faces, to prevent visibility of the swamp in which the party is sinking. I hope supporters of the CHP will get rid of this octopus surrounding the party,” he said.
Rising power
Responding to a question about the key strategic areas in which Türkiye could emerge as a “rising power,” Erdoğan emphasized that Türkiye is a “shining star of the world” and that his administration is working to advance the country in every field.
Erdoğan said a nation’s strength is measured by its ability to stand on its own feet. “We are charting our own course and building our own destiny with our own hands. We recognize our country’s potential and are working to unlock it, taking steps in that direction. Increasing our domestic production capacity in areas such as high technology, energy and research and development is among our main goals. We are producing our own tanks, aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles. We place great importance on preserving a strong family structure and countering attacks against the family. In every field, we focus not only on today but on the future, on the next 50 years, the next 100 years, and we act accordingly. Just as there is a vast difference between the Türkiye we inherited and the Türkiye of today, the Türkiye we will pass on to future generations will be far, far ahead of the present,” Erdoğan said.
