CHP vows to continue Kurdish peace bid with only HDP

The leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has vowed to continue the Kurdish peace process if elected in the June polls, but has stressed he will regard the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) as the sole interlocutor in the talks. 

In a meeting with a small of group journalists, CHP head Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu responded to questions on Turkey's agenda and if his party would continue dealing with the Kurdish peace process and hold talks with Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).  

"There is already the HDP. Meet the HDP if you like. And the HDP would hold talks with whoever they want. But you [as the government] should deal with legitimate interlocutors. And this interlocutor is the HDP, as one of the legitimate actors of Turkey's political life," K?l?çdaro?lu said. The CHP has long been pressing the government to conduct the ongoing Kurdish peace process under the Turkish parliament's roof so that it would become a transparent and national bid. 

Recalling clashes between the army and the PKK in early April in the eastern Anatolian town of A?r?, K?l?çdaro?lu expressed his sincere wish for there to be no security problems throughout the course of the elections. "But there exists a process based on non-confidence. This had two important legs: the government and the Kandil [Mountains, the location of the PKK's main headquarters in northern Iraq]. But now there is a third leg: The president. There are significant problems on that axis. This process will not help resolve Turkey's most chronic problem," he said.   

K?l?çdaro?lu also criticized the government for not reducing the 10 percent national election threshold, which should have been one of most important priorities of a...