Turkey's Kurds overwhelmingly demand peace talks

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Kurds in Turkey overwhelmingly demand peace talks between the Government and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to end the three-decades-old violence and bloodshed, according to a recent survey.

The survey conducted between August 31 - September 7 in 852 randomly selected households in 16 Kurdish majority cities showed that 85 percent of the respondents supported a new round of peace negotiations.

The findings by the Diyarbakir-based Political and Social Research Center (SAMER) survey also demonstrated that the same percentage of people expressed "concern for Turkey's future."

PKK and Turkey committed to a ceasefire and peace process between 2013-2015 until President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to approve a roadmap for peace draft by his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Hopes for peace were renewed after the isolated, imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan sent a message through his visiting brother, saying he was ready to contribute to the halting of violence.

A high profile HDP delegation's subsequent visit in last week and meetings with the Kurdistan Region's President Masoud Barzani raised questions in some Turkish and Kurdish media whether the PKK and Turkish Government were exploring a channel of communication.

Only 33 percent of the respondents approved of the current state of emergency in Turkey which has granted the government extraordinary executive power in the aftermath of the botched July 15 coup attempt.

Fifty percent of the Kurdish voters said they would vote for the HDP if elections were held today, while support for the ruling AKP remained at 23 percent, according to the survey results released on the website of SAMER.

The other two opposition parties, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) would receive a mere 3 and 1 percent of Kurdish votes respectively.

The majority of the rest of the voters said they would not go to the ballot box.

Of those who said they would vote for the HDP, 35 percent believed that the coup attempt was "a scenario," planned to empower President Erdogan and the government.

Fifty-four percent of Kurds said Turkey was not doing enough in combatting the Islamic State (IS) group that is at war with their Iraqi and Syrian brethren and often targets Kurdish cultural and political gatherings in Turkey.

When it comes to the month-long ongoing Turkish incursion into Syria, only 19 percent thought Turkey's aim was fighting the IS, whereas 57 percent said the main target was the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units' (YPG).

Editing by Ava Homa