ISTANBUL
The co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has claimed that the Turkish government has effectively ended the “solution process”.
It was launched by a government initiative to end the decades-old conflict with the PKK terrorist organization, a dispute which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people over more than 30 years in Turkey.
Figen Yuksekdag, HDP’s co-chair, answered the reporters' questions on Monday after the "peace bloc" meeting in Istanbul's Aksaray district.
The group, marking a joint stance against war, issued a press statement claiming that some wanted to drag Turkey into the battlefield.
The statement underlined that there was no winner in war, saying: "We are calling on our citizens to protect peace and to voice their concerns against those who want to darken the future of the country.”
On July 10, Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrikulu launched a “peace bloc” with the aim of preventing Turkey from starting an alleged planned military operation in Syria.
Sunday’s was undersigned by the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey, or DISK, the Turkish Medical Association (TBB), several non-governmental organizations, some political figures including HDP and some deputies from the CHP.
Yuksekdag said that they planned the press statement last week but Istanbul Governor’s Office did not allow them to march.
She said more than 600 people from her party were detained in last week's operations.
"Over the last week, the government is targeting the HDP instead of ending tension," she said.
Yuksekdag claimed the government was trying to bring the solution process, which led to a ceasefire in 2013, to an end.
"Politically, the power (Justice and Development Party) ended this (solution process) in its mind. Military and snap election operations are evidence of this," she said. "We will not allow them to wage a war,” Yuksekdag added.
Turkish warplanes hit Daesh targets in Syria on Friday morning, a day after a group of Daesh militants attacked the Turkish border post, killing one soldier and wounding two others.
The attack followed a Daesh-suspected suicide attack on July 20 in Suruc district of the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa, which killed thirty-two people, most of them young activists planning aid work in the Syrian town of Kobani near Suruc.
On Friday night and Saturday, Turkish air forces also bombed PKK camps in northern Iraq.
Turkey’s air raids against the PKK, first time in the last two-and-a-half years, came after a new wave of attacks against Turkish security forces in the country’s southeastern regions, believed to have been carried out by the outlawed organization.
At home, Turkish security forces have detained over 800 people in three days of raids throughout the country against the PKK, as well as other terrorist groups including Daesh.
The new wave of tension is feared to pose a severe blow to what is known in Turkey as the “solution process”, during which the PKK declared a cease-fire in 2013.
