ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The co-leader of the Turkish Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Salahattin Demirtas, in a statement to the Turkish press Tuesday blamed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for prolonging a war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey.
“It’s been more than 20 years since the PKK withdrew from its separatist political agenda,” he said. Suggesting that Ankara’s policies toward the PKK have impeded resolution of the Kurdish issue in Turkey.
“One more week could have resolved a 40-year-old political conflict in the country, but Ankara didn’t wait,” he said. “PKK leadership said that within a week it would ask the PKK to hold a congress regarding putting down their arms, but the Turkish president didn’t want that.”
Demirtas said that it is Erdogan’s fault that the PKK did not lay down their arms.
“Our only fault is getting 13 percent of the vote,” Demirtas said of the HDP’s success in Turkey’s recent parliament election on June 30.
In the parliamentary election, the HDP won enough seats to pose a challenge to Erdogan’s ruling AKP party.
On Monday, Erdogan told reporters that the Kurdish peace process had been a genuine intention by the Turkish government. He claimed that some people had abused the peace process to fulfill their political aims.
Tensions in Turkey escalated after the PKK claimed responsibility for assassinating two policemen in Gaziantep last Wednesday, ending a shaky peace process with Ankara that began in 2013.
This week Turkish air force jets and artillery have kept up a hail of attacks against the PKK, including a fourth round of airstrikes on Tuesday on PKK camps in the Qandil Mountains of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
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