Turkish PM claims Oslo documents leaked by Gülen movement

ANKARA

AA Photo

The Oslo documents, revealing negotiations between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), were made public by sympathizers of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has claimed. 

“I have said the peace process is local and national, because its actors are here. We realized that the parallel structure and foreign intelligence services revealed the Oslo talks,” Davutoğlu said late on Oct. 22 in a televised interview. 

He said the “parallel structure,” referring the sympathizers of the Gülen movement within the state, were uncomfortable with the peace talks between the PKK and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) back in 2011. After the publishing of details, talks were moved to within Turkey rather than Oslo or Brussels, Davutoğlu added.

The prime minister also said not all of the documents were accurate, and those that were published were revealed by people who “betrayed the state,” vowing not to leave the “fate of the state and the nation” in such traitors’ hands. 

The debate has arisen once again after a leading figure from Turkey’s main opposition party displayed documents during a televised interview on Oct. 22 that he claimed to be identical to a protocol between the AKP and the PKK.

The documents, also made public by Doğan News Agency, state that the then-government promised to ease the release some alleged PKK members in addition to continuing talks and working on draft documents prepared by the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan. 

The introduction part of the document says the parties are determined to continue talks and take dialogue and negotiations as the core way to resolving the Kurdish issue within a spirit of democracy, human rights and justice. 

Both parties promised to finalize efforts “within a constitutional and legal framework,” and they also pledged to comment on three documents submitted by Öcalan. 

The parties vowed to work on the names to be included in commissions that were to be founded as per Öcalan’s drafts, namely the “Constitution Council,” the “Peace Council” and the “Truth and Justice Commission.” 

The Turkish government, according to the document, promised to have two people representing the PKK meet with Öcalan right after the elections, apparently the general elections on June 12, 2011, and have some sub-commission members meet him after the foundation of the commissions mentioned above.  

The document also noted that the release of people arrested on allegations of ties to the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the PKK’s umbrella organization, would be an appropriate step to resolution. In this context, the Turkish side promises to release arrested Kurdish politicians after Nevruz as a first step. 

Nevruz, or Newroz for Kurds, on March 21 marks the start of the spring in many countries.

In the document, the parties also promised each other to halt military operations mutually until June 15, 2011, while planning to meet once again in the second half of June 2011.