Turkish main opposition CHP voices four concerns regarding peace process

ANKARA - Hürriyet

CHP's spokeperson Haluk Koç quickly summarized the four conditions of his party during a press meeting on March 16. AA photo

The Turkish main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) announced on March 16 that they would be ready to support the ongoing peace talks between the government and the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, provided that four conditions are met. The process has to be conducted legally, transparently, with honesty and without secret agendas, said the CHP's spokesperson, Haluk Koç, following an extraordinary meeting of his party's parliamentary group. Koç said that the concerns were unanimously accepted by the deputies participating in the closed-door group meeting that lasted around four hours.

"We warn Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that if the conditions are not met, the disillusions and lack of a solution will be paid with a heavy price," Koç said. As the first party to raise the problem and defended a pacific resolution in 1989, the CHP has plenty to back its decision on whether or not to lend their support to the process, he also added.

The CHP's insistence on the legality of the process is mainly related to the involvement of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) as a facilitator of the talks, noted daily Hürriyet. CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had previously said that the MİT should have been tasked by law to perform this duty.

The opposition members also voiced support to Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-chair Gültan Kışanak's proposition to "include Parliament to increase the legality" of the process. According to Hürriyet, CHP members emphasize that they do not have "official data" on the process that would enable them to decide whether to support or go against the process, hence their insistence on transparency. The CHP’s comments on a “secret agenda” refer to allegations that the process is a means to establishing a Presidential system in Turkey due to Prime Minister Erdoğan’s will to become the first president in the new system.