ANKARA
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan said the annual March 21 Nevruz festival that marks the beginning of spring will be a key milestone for the country's Kurdish solution process.
Nevruz is the March new year spring festival which is celebrated mainly in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Albania, Macedonia, India, and Turkey.
It is an important traditional and cultural event for Turkey's Kurdish population, which also coincides with the 2013 call by Abdullah Ocalan -- imprisoned leader of the outlawed terrorist PKK -- to withdraw all armed elements from Turkish soil as of May and June 2013 and put an end to armed conflict.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, U.S. and the European Union and its terrorist attacks have claimed around 40,000 lives in Turkey in the last three decades.
"We will hopefully burn all conflict, violence and weapons in the fire of democracy on Nevruz day," he said during an address at Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, or TOBB, in Ankara.
In another historic step forward in the solution process, a government initiative that officially started in early 2013 to end the decades-old conflict with PKK, Ocalan also called on Feb 28. for members to hold a conference to discuss disarmament.
Deputy Prime Minister Akdogan, who is leading the talks on the solution process in the name of the government, hailed the call for the PKK to lay down arms as historically important.
"We need to first acknowledge that politics is the platform for any kind of problems to be discussed and resolved," he said.
In order to achieve a settlement, the minister said they do not hesitate to talk and debate over any problem, saying "Even the most unusual ideas and opinions that we find hard to accept could be discussed freely on grounds of democracy."
He stressed that Turkish democracy now has the capability to solve any problem, adding that it is in their hands to further improve it.
"There is no room for weapons in the presence of democracy. If there are weapons, then there is no belief in democracy," he added.
Akdogan reiterated that the problem needs to be settled through cooperation, which he says lays great responsibility on everyone's shoulders.
He also emphasized that the drafting of Turkey's new constitution will be a key opportunity to solve chronic problems.
Following his address, Akdogan attended a meeting held once a fortnight under the chairmanship of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to review the latest progress of the solution process, where he said they will also discuss the issues and reports brought by chairmen of trade unions coming from the eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey.
The meeting is also attended by Hakan Fidan who returned Tuesday to his previous post as Turkey’s intelligence chief, after he withdrew his candidacy for June 7 parliamentary election.
