'Oslo talks should be revived,' says Zana

Leyla Zana. AFP photo

Independent deputy Leyla Zana has outlined the contents of a much-anticipated meeting she held yesterday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, declaring that it is “unrealistic” to end the Kurdish issue by asking Kurdish militants to lay down their arms.

The armed conflict remains an open wound, Zana said, adding that she told the prime minister that it could not be healed with demands such as calling on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to lay down arms or asking the Turkish army to stop military operations.

"I told [the prime minister] that the people who asked for an apology were not the people of a foreign state but were citizens of this country," Zana said.

She also said she told Erdoğan that it was quite possible to transfer the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, to house arrest, but Zana did not elaborate on the details of the conversation regarding the issue.

Zana also advised the prime minister to continue the Oslo process, in which members of Turkey’s intelligence agency began dialogue with the PKK in an effort to end the conflict.

The lawmaker also said she told Erdoğan that adding Kurdish as an elective course in Turkish education system was a positive step.

The rare meeting to try and resolve the decades-old conflict occurred after Zana surprised many, especially in the Kurdish movement in which she is a symbolic figure, by saying she believed Erdoğan could solve the problem.

The PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. (Hurriyet.com.tr)

Turkish PM Erdoğan, Zana to meet to discuss Kurdish issue

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and independent Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Zana (C) will meet on June 30 at 3:00 pm, to discuss the Kurdish issue. AA photo

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet independent Kurdish lawmaker Leyla Zana on June 30 to discuss the Kurdish issue, two days after the National Security Council (MGK) said terrorism would not hold back commonsense efforts to solve the Kurdish question.

“Terror activities will not be able to sabotage commonsense steps that will be taken to establish social peace and resolve the [Kurdish] question,” the MGK said in a declaration issued after a June 28 meeting.

Zana, a symbolic figure in the Kurdish movement and an independent deputy from Diyarbakır, said in an interview with daily Hürriyet on June 14 that Erdoğan could solve the Kurdish issue and that she had never lost her hopes that he would do so. She requested a meeting with Erdoğan after her remarks were welcomed by high-ranking officials from the ruling party.

Zana was elected as a deputy in the 2012 elections from the bloc backed by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), but she cannot become a party member until 2014 because of a political ban against her. In 2009 the Constitutional Court banned the BDP’s predecessor, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), and the party’s founders, including Zana, from participating in politics for five years.

The BDP was cool to Zana’s remarks, with party co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş saying it was naïve to hope the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) would be able to solve the Kurdish issue. He later said it was pointless to expect an intraparty argument with the BDP, praising Zana as “invaluable.”

Zana’s meeting with Erdoğan has nevertheless raised eyebrows within the BDP. Demirtaş said the prospective meeting was not with party consent, while one anonymous party senior said, “She had said ‘Weapons are insurance for Kurds’ [in January], and now she sings Erdoğan’s praises, what has changed within a couple of months?”

Alluding to Zana’s remarks, Erdoğan speculated that there could be a breakup within the BDP, but the party played down Erdoğan’s speculation as “wishful thinking.” (ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News)