Erdogan warns no more steps toward peace without PKK disarmament

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that his government will not take further measures towards the Kurdish peace process unless the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) lays down arms.

“It’s not possible to believe these (promises) unless we see the practice. We have to see the practice first,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet daily newspaper during his weekly meeting Monday with local community representatives.

“Peace is not possible under the shadow of arms ... We cannot move forward in an environment in which promises are violated repeatedly unless we see concrete steps,” he added.

Erdogan’s statement came just two days after the jailed PKK leader Abdulla Ocalan called on his Qandil mountain-based group to decommission arms in favor of a political solution.

“I see it as necessary and historic to end this struggle and to hold a congress to clarify new political and social strategy and tactics appropriate to the new period,” Ocalan said in a Newroz message read out by Kurdish MPs.

Ocalan and the Turkish government started talks in 2012, which developed into a ceasefire in 2013. However, the process has remained fragile, with both sides accuse one another of violating agreed promises.

Erdogan dismissed the existence of a “Kurdish problem” in Turkey last week, which drew heavy criticism from the Kurdish camp which accuses the president of aiming to remain in office with unprecedented powers after June polls.

Selahattin Demirtas,  the co-leader of pro Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), has vowed to derail another presidential term for Erdogan.