Second İmralı visit to come soon: AKP

ANKARA

Deputy chairman and spokesperson of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Hüseyin Çelik has said that Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) lawmakers’ second visit to İmralı island may take place soon, stressing that the recently launched “peace process” was not deadlocked. 

“That the second visit to İmralı island by the BDP lawmakers hasn’t happened does not mean this visit will not take place. It does not mean that the [peace] process is deadlocked, either. We will not be the party who drags this process into a deadlock,” Çelik told reporters.

Çelik was commenting on media reports that independent deputy Ahmet Türk was not allowed to pay a second visit – reportedly planned for yesterday – to the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving a life sentence on the İmralı island prison. Türk and BDP deputy Ayla Akat met with Öcalan on Jan. 3, after the government allowed them to visit İmralı island as part of a recently launched “peace process” aiming for a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the PKK and Turkish security forces.

In further comments, Çelik said that media reports about possible cabinet revisions do not reflect the truth. “Mr. Prime Minister is tight-lipped about this issue. Not even a single person has any information about the revision until the new list is submitted to the president. When I was appointed as 
Education Minister, I, too, learned it from the television news. As long as those news 
reports continue, Mr. Prime Minister may delay the cabinet revision,” Çelik said.


‘Not informed’ about visit
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Türk said that they were not informed about their second visit to İmralı. “Everybody writes something [about a visit to İmralı]. I applied for the visit [to the Justice Ministry]. I can’t understand how the media could write the date [of the visit] when we don’t know when it will take place,” said Türk according to the Anatolia news agency.