‘Turkey not to be deceived by new resolution process’

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA

Turkey's opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader said on Tuesday the Turkish nation would never be deceived with a "new resolution process".

In early 2013, under then-Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish government launched an initiative publicly known as the resolution process to end the decades-old conflict with the PKK, whose terrorist campaign has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people over 30 years.

The process stalled in 2015 after the murder of a number of police officers and soldiers, which the PKK claimed responsibility for.

"If anyone is seeking to lure our country into the new resolution process, the Turkish nation will never drink that deadly poison served in a golden bowl," Devlet Bahceli told his party's parliamentary group meeting.

He said: "You cannot come to the table with terrorism, nor can you hold any discussions with terrorists. You cannot contain the bloodshed by making deals [with terrorists]."

Bahceli emphasized that "the brothers of Kurdish origin do not have any link to the terror group."

"Holding our brothers of the Kurdish origin equal to the terror group is dishonorable," he added.