What role will the Kurds play in the presidential polls?

With nearly two months left to the presidential polls, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is introducing all indications that it is pushing the Kurdish peace process. Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay announced on Sunday, June 1, that the government was in preparation to intensify the peace process through bold and concrete steps.

Informing that these steps were discussed at a high-level meeting on May 19 with the participation of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Atalay stressed “I will not go into the content of the new decisions, but I can say it has been decided to work on a new roadmap and take quicker steps for results.”

A similar approach was voiced by a prominent People’s Democracy Party (HDP) lawmaker, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who is a part of the team routinely visiting imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan. Following their latest visit to İmralı İsland, where Öcalan has been serving life sentence, Önder expressed optimism that “the ongoing political talks between the government and the HDP would likely yield a result.”

Following the government’s meeting May 19, Atalay, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ and Interior Minister Efkan Ala held a meeting with Önder, Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken, two other HDP lawmakers in talks with Öcalan, at the office of the Prime Ministry before their scheduled visit to İmralı. These series of talks obviously granted a new impetus in the peace process, as the government is readying to hold a very important meeting in Diyarbakır on June 6.

A high-level government team composed of Atalay, Ala, PM Erdoğan’s advisor Yalçın Akdoğan...