CHP, HDP Leaders Discuss Undermined Security After Clashes Between Army And PKK

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has met with Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş to discuss the efforts to bring an end to the violence that has ensued since the renewal of armed clashes between the army and the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

CHP parliamentary group deputy chairman Engin Altay made a press statement regarding the meeting with Kılıçdaroğlu and Demirtaş on Tuesday, urging the PKK to lay down its arms.

“We want to highlight the necessity for all parties to adopt a common stance against terrorism. The PKK should know that peace cannot be achieved by [resorting] to arms. … The PKK should lay down its arms for peace,” said Altay.

Demirtaş discussed the current developments concerning the settlement process, which was launched in 2012 in the form of negotiations with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to resolve the decades-old Kurdish issue, amid major signs that the process has come to a standstill following the renewal of armed clashes with the army and PKK.

PKK targets in northern Iraq as well as in Turkey have been hit as part of counterterrorism operations that began late last month following a suicide bomb attack in the southeastern town of Suruç, which killed 33 activists, and the subsequent killing of two police officers. The first attack was blamed on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist organization while a youth branch of the PKK claimed responsibility for the murders of the police officers, apparently in response to the police failure to stop the Suruç bombing.

Turkey first attacked ISIL targets in Syria, but the next day focused on PKK targets in northern Iraq, derailing the settlement process that had been in progress since 2012.

Last week President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said it was impossible to continue a settlement process with the PKK while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Ankara's efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue were not over, in an article published on Saturday in The Washington Post.

HDP expresses support for AK Party-CHP coalition

HDP parliamentary group deputy chairman İdris Baluken said a coalition between the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the CHP will help the country overcome polarization and conflict.

“We voice the necessity for the conclusion of coalition talks [between the AK Party and the CHP] instead of [going to a] snap election. … The president desires an early election and is pressuring the AK Party to that end,” Baluken told reporters after the meeting between Kılıçdaroğlu and Demirtaş.

Delegations from the AK Party and CHP came together on Monday for a final round of coalition talks, with the prospect of such a coalition appearing increasingly improbable.

In the fifth and final round of this week's talks, the AK Party and CHP focused on the country's education system, its relationship with the European Union and foreign policy. The negotiations are only supposed to be preliminary talks intended to pave the way for both sides to outline their positions on a variety of topics before the start of genuine coalition negotiations.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)