Turkey rejects Kurds' peace initiative

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Kurdistan24) – On Wednesday, Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party said the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) wanted to resume peace talks with the Turkish government, but Ankara rejected the proposal.

Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said, "A few months ago, we were in contact with Qandil [PKK] in an effort to return them to the negotiating table. The government knew that we were working for this, but the government rejected it,"  Reuters reported Demirtas speaking at a press conference in Istanbul.

Demirtas also said in an interview on Tuesday that his HDP party wants a cease-fire in the ongoing battle between Turkish troops and Kurds in southeastern Turkey, but President Erdogan is not willing to listen.

“My party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), has called on both sides to lay down their weapons. The Turkish government and the PKK negotiated for peace for two and a half years. Erdogan overturned the negotiating table,” Demirtas told the German-language news website Spiegel.   

Commenting on the operations conducted by Turkish forces in the Kurdish southeastern areas of Turkey, Demirtas said the war is primarily focused on civilians whom Erdogan suspects of supporting the PKK.

“Almost 400,000 people have had to leave their homes,” he said pointing out that the PKK is willing to put down its weapons, but the Turkish government insists on violence. 

Erdogan confirmed Demirtas’ statement when he said on Tuesday that political attempts to end the conflict between Turkey’s security forces and PKK are now a thing of the past.

“If you are looking for a resolution, here is the resolution. When we root out the terror organization, without its smallest trace remaining, from these territories, then we will have put the resolution into practice,” he is cited by Turkey's leading secular media, Hurriyet Daily News.

The peace process between the PKK and the Turkish government broke down last July and the fight has since claimed thousands of lives in predominantly Kurdish southeast Turkey.

Reporting by Hisham Arafat

Editing by Ava Homa