Is there consensus on the peace process ‘road map’ or not?

Sırrı Süreyya Önder from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) phoned me to explain in his own terms the course of the process since Sept. 3. There were two critical points in Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s recent explanation of the process. The first of these was the document named the “road map.”

According to Önder, National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan did indeed take the text that the government calls the “road map” to Abdullah Öcalan at İmralı Island Prison on Sept. 3, and Öcalan agreed with the text. However, Önder added that this text “cannot be called a road map … In the eyes of Öcalan, a road map is quite different, a more comprehensive thing.”

Four days after Fidan, a HDP delegation including Önder visited İmralı and met Öcalan, who told them that even though he agreed to the text, he had certain essential objections. Two of them are very important.

Öcalan does not accept the “ladder” method of the road map, which could be characterized as “Let me do this first and then you do this.” He believes that the things that need to be done should be done according to a calendar and with mutual trust, without prerequisites concerning the other side’s moves.
His second essential objection was to being made a “tool.”

Pledge to maintain public order 

Prime Minister Erdoğan explained that he met the HDP delegation after it met with Öcalan and visited Kandil Mountain, and in this long meeting there was full agreement on the road map and a pledge to maintain public order in Turkey until Oct. 15.

Önder confirmed that Kandil had pledged public order until Oct. 15, but again the HDP returned to the same point about the road map: “The text...