Pro-Kurdish deputy welcomes Gülen’s support for peace talks

Ahmet Türk
Ahmet Türk


Date posted: January 9, 2013

Pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Ahmet Türk has welcomed support of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen for the peace talks between the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the government. “View of Fethullah Gülen [on peace talks] is reasonable, welcoming,” Türk told CNN Türk TV channel in an interview on Wednesday, adding that he carefully followed his statement.

In his latest weekly speech, broadcast on website Herkul.org last Sunday, Gülen said as long as national dignity and pride are not undermined, every necessary step should be taken to maintain peace because “there are benefits in peace.”

Türk, who also visited Öcalan last week as part of the peace talks, said in the interview that Gülen was stressing the fact that “we should accept who we are” and lauded his messages of tolerance in his speech. He said he found his remarks “positive.”

State officials and Öcalan have been having talks to broker a deal for the disarming of the terrorist group. The talks with Öcalan 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.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in predominantly Kurdish-populated southeastern Anatolia since 1984. More than 40,000 people, including civilians and security forces, have been killed in clashes with the terrorist group.

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 talks with the terrorist head may lead to a timetable for withdrawal of PKK terrorists from Turkey and the eventual laying down of arms.

There is support for the peace talks from many circles in society including the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Turkey’s mainstream media.

Öcalan holds key to solution

In the interview, Türk also said its Öcalan who is holding the key to the solution of the Kurdish issue rather than his party, which is largely viewed as a political offshoot of the terrorist organization by the authorities.

Amid debates that Öcalan might be not influential enough in calling the shots during peace talks between him and the state officials, Türk’s position was assuring: İmralı’s position has the capability to realize the solution. The Kurdish deputy was referring to the island of İmralı, where Öcalan has been jailed since 1999.

Türk also recalled that his party members were criticized when they pointed to Öcalan as the chief actor who should be heeded as a party in peace talks. “Abdullah Öcalan is the one who is deciding. We are not decision-makers,” Türk stressed.

Türk also said he is in favor of open talks and that secret talks would not yield healthy results.

Speaking about investigation into the Kurdistan Communities’ Union (KCK), an urban branch of the PKK, Türk said authorities have rounded up nearly 10,000 civilians, most of whom are not related to the KCK. He said Öcalan also raised similar concerns during their talks.

In Niger’s capital Niamey, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at a news conference that PKK terrorists should withdraw forces from Turkish territory and disarm. Türk said he prefers truce before any deal to disarm. He said possible truce between the two warring parties would create a positive atmosphere to further explore peace projects. When asked what Öcalan thinks on the first stage of the peace process, Türk said the PKK leader would most likely think the same thing.

He also said he is concerned over Erdoğan’s position, claiming that he is flipping and flopping in his statements.

Source: Today’s Zaman January 9, 2013


Related News

Securitizing the Hizmet / Gulen movement

Turkey’s most influential and widely respected civil society organisation, the Hizmet movement, is under continual attack by PM Erdoğan who accuses it of seeking to establish a “parallel state”. Such rhetoric and ‘securitization’ may destroy the democratic fabric of Turkish society.

Mother with infant jailed while trying to visit imprisoned husband

Ayfer Yavuz traveled to Kars from Muğla via flight along with her father-in-law Hüseyin Yavuz, four-year-old daughter and four-and-half-month-old infant baby to visit husband Emre Yavuz who has never seen newly born baby. When she reached to Kars Prison where her husband kept, gerdarmeire officers detained her as well.

Introducing the Hizmet Movement

I thank the organizers for this invitation to be part of the inaugural dinner of the conference “Islam in the Age of Global Challenges: Alternative Perspectives of the Gülen Movement.” I am also grateful to Georgetown University for hosting this event.

Pak-Turk schools: Parents urge government against transferring administration to Erdogan-linked organization

“All the Turkish teachers and administrators have left Pakistan and the schools are being run by Pakistanis,” said one of the parents Syed Amir Abdullah. He added that the government still seemed hell bent on ruining these institutions by handing them over to an ‘infamous organisation’ which has no experience of running them.

GYV Presient Yesil: We knock on all doors

Mustafa Yesil is the president of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), which is known as the Gulen community’s institutional representative. He has addressed a wide range of issues, among them the Gulen movement, eavesdropping, the arrest of Aziz Yildirim (chairman, Fenerbahce soccer team), the National Intelligence Institution’s (MIT’s) head Hakan Fidan’s query.

Is the Gulen Movement an alternative to the state?

Some say, “You [Gülen Movement] are acting as the honorary ambassadors, counselors, and attachés, are you the alternative to the state? My answer is as follows: If some people are taking care of the business in the places where you cannot reach, you have to only admire and compliment them.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

The Hizmet movement, social democracy, the religious left

GYV: Hard-won democratic gains sacrificed for short-term interests

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Victim: We are being a subject to genocide

Police raid schools in Diyarbakır where locals go on strike in protest of recent gov’t practices

Gülen movement to be discussed at Arab League

Fethullah Gulen’s message to the “Ijma” symposium

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News