Turkish government plans legal steps in Kurdish peace bid

The southeast may seem to be a powder keg, but the government is intent on taking critical steps on the peace process, the deputy PM says The Turkish government is prepared to take a “courageous step” in the Kurdish peace process, including passing legal amendments for a new roadmap, Deputy PM Beşir Atalay told a workshop on the peace process held in Diyarbakır on June 6.

“Legal amendments will be done if necessary. They will be taken to the Parliament. We have to have a solution,” said Atalay, adding that they would also consider introducing a right of return for outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, or enabling their return to politics.

“We have made the state face what it has done in the past. We have brought all the wrongdoings, injustices, bans, taboos and unresolved murders to light once again,” said Atalay, adding that the absence of international mediators in the peace process had been another problem.

“The solutions to the big problems always come with difficulty. Even the lack of an international mediator has become a problem. But we have always carried out this process with courage and self-confidence,” Atalay said.  

The deputy prime minister also said they agreed with the latest message from PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, in which he said a new stage in the peace process had started and that hopes should be preserved and improved.

On June 1, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy leader Sırrı Süreyya Önder, along with HDP deputy parliamentary heads İdris Baluken and Pervin Buldan, met with Öcalan at the İmralı Island prison, where he is serving a life sentence.

Öcalan...