Solution Process İs At A Key Stage: Turkish Deputy Pm

Turkish deputy prime minister has dismissed a pro-Kurdish party leader's remarks that he is allegedly an obstacle in the ongoing solution process with an outlawed terrorist organization.



Pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, or HDP, leader Selahattin Demirtas said recently that Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was the "biggest obstacle" in the solution process with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or the PKK.



In a live interview on Turkey's private NTV channel, Arinc dismissed the opposition leader's remarks. "The process is not moving ahead because of Demirtas' personality alone. I will not talk about someone everyday; Demirtas might need it for promotion, but I will not allow it," he said.



He also said the country's solution process was at a key stage that must proceed step-by-step, adding that more efforts were needed to finalize it.



"The solution process is at a key stage and it is proceeding ahead with the HDP party," he said. 



He also slammed Demirtas for his statement that, "We do not trust the Turkish government." The deputy premier said both sides must trust each other. "(If you don't trust,) then you are trying to end the process since you don't trust. You cannot solve anything without trust. I cannot ignore the HDP, because we have been in this process since the beginning," he said.



He said that the solution process with the PKK was working well after the HDP delegation visited Imrali, a Turkish island where the PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, is jailed.



About the announcement of Ocalan's message in which he invited the PKK to hold a congress to decide on the issue of laying down arms, Arinc said, "This is a call which should be implemented and I guess the PKK will make an announcement to lay down arms. Then the government will do its part," he said.



The "solution process" officially began in 2013 in an effort to bring an end to the decades-old conflict with the outlawed PKK, which is listed by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union as a terrorist organization.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ankara