Kurdistan Workers' Party

Turkey still has a Kurdish issue, Finance Minister Mehmet ?im?ek said on April 1, apparently contradicting President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an?s recent claim that Turkey no longer has a Kurdish problem, only a terrorism problem.

A senior leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) has said the group aims to solve the Kurdish issue politically rather than militarily, and is waiting for ?solid steps? from the government in order to end the armed struggle.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has voiced his support for Turkey's ongoing Kurdish peace process, speaking after a meeting with a visiting delegation from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Arbil on March 30.

"We have supported peace and its process since the beginning and we are ready to do our part," Barzani said.

Zübeyir Aydar, a leading figure in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) based in Brussels, has claimed that the PKK is neither a separatist nor a nationalist organization, while also stressing that the group fully supports the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan's stance in the ongoing peace process.

The recent Newroz declaration of the jailed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan contained many ambiguities, but it could still be considered a positive step on the path of the so-called ?peace negotiations.?

The outlawed Kurdistan Peoples? Party (PKK) and the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen have been engaged in a systematic campaign to attack Turkey?s resources and interests for years, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said during a speech in the Black Sea province of Karabük on March 27.

It was different in Diyarbak?r for Nevruz this time. Three long years had passed since the first letter was read in the big Ba?lar Square. Those sentences were still fresh in the memories of the Kurdish youth.

A French court on March 24 sentenced two Kurds to five years in prison and seven others to lesser terms in an extortion case linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Investigators probed an extortion racket linked to a PKK campaign to raise funds among Kurdish immigrants through a so-called revolutionary tax.

It was President Tayyip Erdo?an who initiated the talks between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) in pursuit of a political solution to Turkey?s Kurdish problem when he was prime minister back in 2012.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), an offshoot of the PKK, are being legitimized thanks to their fight against jihadists in Syria, Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Necdet Özel has said.