Demirtas calls for resumption of Turkish-PKK peace talks
Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey, has, according to the Anadolu Agency, called for the relaunch of the peace process between Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) group which collapsed last July.
"The more people and institutions insist on returning to the peace talks and the more international organizations take part in this, the more possible and fast it will be to return to the peace process," Demirtas said on Tuesday while addressing the European Parliament in Brussels.
"[A successful peace process] will have a positive domino effect on the migration crisis in Europe," Demirtas added in a clear bid to demonstrate to the European nations that it is in their interests too to see an end to the Turkish-PKK conflict.
The war between Turkey and the PKK began in 1984 and raged on until early 2013 when a ceasefire was introduced and peace talks began. However they began to falter late in 2014 when Kurds in Turkey accused the state of supporting, or at least being sympathetic to, the Islamic State (ISIS) during its siege of Kobani.
When a suspected ISIS suicide bomber killed scores of Kurdish activists in Suruc in a suicide attack in July 2015 the PKK "retaliated" by killing two Turkish police officers, effectively ending the peace process.
Presently the Turkish military and police have put Kurdish areas under curfew as they clash with members of the PKK. Human rights monitors have accused Ankara of being too heavy-handed and indiscriminate in this campaign.
"The more people and institutions insist on returning to the peace talks and the more international organizations take part in this, the more possible and fast it will be to return to the peace process," Demirtas said on Tuesday while addressing the European Parliament in Brussels.
"[A successful peace process] will have a positive domino effect on the migration crisis in Europe," Demirtas added in a clear bid to demonstrate to the European nations that it is in their interests too to see an end to the Turkish-PKK conflict.
The war between Turkey and the PKK began in 1984 and raged on until early 2013 when a ceasefire was introduced and peace talks began. However they began to falter late in 2014 when Kurds in Turkey accused the state of supporting, or at least being sympathetic to, the Islamic State (ISIS) during its siege of Kobani.
When a suspected ISIS suicide bomber killed scores of Kurdish activists in Suruc in a suicide attack in July 2015 the PKK "retaliated" by killing two Turkish police officers, effectively ending the peace process.
Presently the Turkish military and police have put Kurdish areas under curfew as they clash with members of the PKK. Human rights monitors have accused Ankara of being too heavy-handed and indiscriminate in this campaign.