Turkish gov’t, HDP herald ‘new phase’ in Kurdish peace process

Both the government and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) have simultaneously announced that the stalled peace process has entered “a new phase,” with the latter emphasizing that the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will assume a more central role in the new phase.

“The process is going on with a strong political will and determination. The meetings based on confidence and goodwill have accelerated in order to reach the final result,” Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan said in a message posted on his Twitter account yesterday following a meeting with a delegation from the HDP.

The meeting between Akdoğan and HDP Istanbul deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder and HDP Deputy Parliamentary Group Chair Pervin Buldan followed a lengthy meeting held between the HDP delegation and jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan on Dec. 17.

“We have passed through fragility which had begun with the Kobane resistance. As of today, we want to say that we have left a significant crisis behind,” Önder told reporters yesterday following the meeting with Akdoğan.

The HDP deputy was referring to the stagnation within the process since street violence in early October claimed dozens of lives in country-wide protests against the government’s perceived inaction over the Islamic Republic of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) assault on the Kurdish-populated town of Kobane in northern Syria, near the border with Turkey.

“We want to tell that, from now on, we have entered a new, phase that will be İmralı-oriented,” Önder added, noting that all matters involving the peace process would be “rapidly” dealt with along this new phase.

İmralı is a byword for Öcalan, who is serving a life...