HDP to propose new solution plan for Kurdish question

Turkey's Kurdish issue-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is readying to announce a new plan for a resolution to the decades-old Kurdish question at an extraordinary congress on May 20, HDP spokesperson Osman Baydemir has said, stating that his party will work toward "a process where there is no conflict and war."

"Our party will start to prepare a call for democracy which will embrace all segments of the society. This call will be inspired by the Nevruz declarations of 2013, 2014 and 2015 and the Dolmabahçe Agreement, which includes all the values required to build a society that will live in harmony," Baydemir said at a press conference after the HDP's Central Executive Board meeting on April 8, referring to outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan's declaration, in which he called for a cease-fire and the group's militants to lay down their arms.  

The Dolmabahçe Agreement, a document outlining a 10 item list of priorities for the resolution of the Kurdish issue, was a meeting attended by former Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan and HDP representatives on Feb. 28, 2015. 

Answering a question concerning his reference to the agreement, Baydemir said the party made calls to those who did not want death, war or monopoly.

"This country experienced a conflict-free process. To back that experience, there should be an evaluation of what has and has not been done. But the HDP is a part of the solution. The solution requires the cruel to give up on its cruelty," he said.

Criticizing the government's policy in Syria, Baydemir said the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) should "stop fueling the fire in Syria."

"There were two reasons that transformed the peace process into a conflict....