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Turkish PM vows to push on peace process with Kurds

Xinhua, January 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday said that his government and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are ready to sacrifice their everything "for the sake of success of the peace process" with Kurds in Turkey.

During his speech at AKP's provincial congress of southeastern province of Diyarbakir, populated mostly by Kurds, Davutoglu said the peace process with Kurds is not a cyclical effort. It is not an effort targeting to win the election or not to lost the elections, adding that "we initialized it as a national, permanent project."

He said previous peace efforts of former Turkish leaders in 1990's years had been prevented and hampered by some "nationalist" political circles and added that there are always political powers in the country who aim to prevent the last peace process of AKP.

He claimed that as well as hampering of Turkish nationalists, Kurdish nationalists have also been trying to destroy the peace process.

Turmoils and demonstrations in some Turkish cities last October occurred due to the "Islamic State" siege of the Kurdish-populated Syrian city of Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobane.

Davutoglu peace process has gained momentum nowadays, adding "we are negotiating with every side, who are related to the peace process. Not only one side."

He said that Islam is an adhesive power of the process with Kurds, adding that their aim is a new constitution following the general elections in next June. "The new constitution will be egalitarian and libertarian for all our citizens," Davutoglu said.

The outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and other countries, took up arms in 1984 in an attempt to create an ethnic homeland for the Kurds in southeast Turkey.

The Turkish authorities started peace negotiations with the PKK in October 2012, which led to a ceasefire in March 2013, but PKK fighters started to return to their strongholds in northern Iraq in May last year. Endit