HDP calls for re-launch of Kurdish peace process

BRUSSELS

CİHAN photo

A co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has called for the re-launch of the Kurdish peace process that collapsed after a return to violence between the state and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

“The more people and institutions insist on returning to the peace talks and the more international organizations take part in this, the more possible and fast it will be to return to the peace process,” HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said Jan. 26 at the European Parliament in Brussels.        

Urging the international community to recommit to stalled talks process to end the decades-long conflict between Turkey and the PKK, Demirtaş said re-launching the solution process would also have positive effects on the crisis in Syria.        

“[The solution process] will have a positive domino effect on the migration crisis in Europe,” Demirtaş said.
HDP Deputy Leyla Zana, who also spoke before the European Parliament in Brussels, similarly called for a return to negotiation table.

“Our people expect first of all an end to the killings and clashes and a return to the negotiating table to find a solution through peaceful and democratic means,” Zana said.