Turkish presidential candidate İhsanoğlu says yes to ‘rational’ peace process

Turkish presidential candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu has said he is willing to pursue the Kurdish peace process, but adds the resolution must be “rational.”

Speaking to reporters during a rally in Diyarbakır, the city with the biggest Kurdish population in Turkey’s southeast, İhsanoğlu said he was not against the government-initiated peace process, which has aimed to end the decades-old conflict between militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Turkish army.

İhsanoğlu referred to the developments in the Middle East when speaking about the process. “Middle Eastern countries have begun to be torn apart and it will continue,” he said. “Iraq is now in three parts. Syria will be how many parts, who knows? There is a common history there and when you tear it apart, you cut its veins. For some time they will be happy to be independent, but it will get worse. So, divisions are in nobody’s favor.”

İhsanoğlu added that Turks and Kurds had no reason to break apart.

“We have lived together, though we have had some mistakes and we should fix them,” he said. “When we are looking for a solution, the solution must be rational.”

İhsanoğlu is running against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) candidate Selahattin Demirtaş in the Aug. 10 elections. The former secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has the backing of nine political parties, including two major opposition parties, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

“Among the parties who have announced their support for me, there are...