PKK asks for more as Parliament approves settlement reform bill
The reform package provides, among other things, legal immunity for state officials who have been involved in talks with members of the terrorist PKK.
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, when promoting the package in late June, said the package is aimed at continuing efforts to find a peaceful and democratic solution to the long-standing Kurdish question. The package gives the Cabinet unrestricted authority to take necessary measures to further these efforts.
The package was approved with 237 “yes” votes and 37 “no” votes. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which opposes the settlement process, did not lend its support to the package. The Republican People's Party (CHP) objected to the “immunity clause” in the package, which gives legal immunity to state officials involved in talks with the PKK.
The package, which includes six articles, states that the government will take steps to end terrorism with political, legal, socio-economic, psychological, cultural, human rights and security reforms. To this end, the package stipulates that the government will contact and hold meetings with individuals, groups and institutions, both inside the country and abroad, and assign individuals and institutions to carry out those meetings. Necessary measures will be taken to facilitate the complete transition of militants, who will lay down arms, leave the mountains and return to daily life.
The bill provides a guarantee of avoiding trial for public officials who have participated in talks with high-level members of the terrorist PKK as part of the settlement process.
State officials, and the jailed leader of the terrorist PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, have been holding talks to broker a deal for the disbanding of the organization. The talks are being carried out by National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan, whose position as a negotiator on behalf of the Turkish state has been confirmed by the government.
Öcalan, imprisoned on İmralı Island in the Marmara Sea south of İstanbul since his capture in 1999, has significant influence among PKK members and supporters. The Turkish state believes that talks with the terrorist leader may lead to a timetable for the withdrawal of PKK terrorists from Turkey and the eventual laying down of arms.
The package also seeks to allow PKK members who do not hold a significant post in the terrorist group and who have not been involved in a terrorist attack against Turkey to be rehabilitated if they surrender to Turkish security forces.
In addition, according to the package, the Cabinet, rather than individual state institutions, will be authorized to take measures related to the talks with the PKK, enabling it to speed up the process.
PKK: More for peace
The PKK, while welcoming the settlement package, has said the package -- on its own -- is not enough to ensure the settlement of the Kurdish question and the disarming of the terrorist group. The group says the government should “take more steps” for permanent peace.
PKK leader Öcalan met with a group of Kurdish lawmakers in his prison cell on Thursday and conveyed a message to political figures in which he said he thanks all “officials who have contributed to the settlement reform package.” He also said the package will stand as a positive beginning for the restoration of peace in Turkey.
However, the terrorist head noted in his message that the package will lose its meaning unless it is supported by required legal and social steps. “Parties should avoid any stance or practices that may risk the spirit of the following process [in the settlement issue]. The government and Parliament should, without losing any time, establish required commissions and monitoring boards [to ensure the continuation of the process.] These steps will serve as a strong guarantee to foil provocation attempts which may target the peace process,” Öcalan also stated in his message.
Also on Thursday, Cemil Bayık, the number two man in the PKK leadership, said he welcomes the settlement reform package but added that a number of legal loopholes threaten the settlement process. “They [Turkish state officials] still consider the [Kurdish] issue as a matter of security. They have always done so. And for this reason, they have insisted on military and intelligence methods to solve the matter. But they have not considered it as a matter of politics and human rights. Now, they have to name the problem correctly. The matter is not to end terrorism. It is to solve the Kurdish question,” he stated, in an interview with Al Jazeera.
For Bayık, one of the key issues that stand in the way of a full solution of the Kurdish question is the imprisonment of Öcalan. He said the question will not fully be settled if Öcalan remains imprisoned. “The passage of the settlement bill does not guarantee anything. It does not mean that the [Kurdish] issue has been resolved or that negotiations [between Turkey and the PKK] have restarted. For all this to happen, more steps should be taken. Our leader Apo [an abbreviation for Abdullah Öcalan] should be set free,” the terrorist leader stated. He also said that the negotiations between the Turkish state and the PKK should be monitored by a third party.
Similarly, pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) co-chairwoman, Figen Yüksekdağ, told the media on Wednesday that the settlement reform package will help overcome a “blockage” on the path toward resolution of the Kurdish question. However, she said, there are some other conditions for people in Turkey to be fully free, among them, the setting free of Öcalan and Kurdish political prisoners.
Yüksekdağ also said that Turkey should expunge anti-democratic articles in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).
Source https://mobile.todayszaman.com/national_pkk-asks-for-more-as-parliament-approves-settlement-reform-bill_352826.html
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