Kurdish peace bid in new government program as a first

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has marked yet another threshold in documenting the ongoing peace process with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), explicitly presenting the issue as a matter handled by intelligence officials for last few years.

“Strong steps aimed at solving of our country’s domestic issues, with the resolution process being in the first place, will be taken with determination, and our position in the world race will be strengthened as a nation. Our nation is an inheritor and carrier of a great civilization, at the center of which unity and fraternity in plurality exist,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said, while reading out the preface of the program of the 62nd government of the Turkish Republic at Parliament on Sept. 1, days after he was tasked with forming a new Cabinet by new President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The preface was not the only place where the peace process, which the government prefers to call a “resolution process,” was cited.

Along with the preface and conclusion, the 189-page program was divided under five titles: Advanced Democracy, Humanitarian Development, Livable Spaces and Environment, Strong Economy and Pioneer Country. A subtitle under the Advanced Democracy section, the “Societal Integration and Resolution Process,” was entirely dedicated to the process aiming to end the three-decade-long conflict between Turkey’s security forces and the PKK. Playing a central role in the process, jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan has been in dialogue with both state officials and members of Parliament since at least late 2012.

The former prime minister, Erdoğan, and members of the Cabinet have so far constantly underlined...