Members of the European Parliament called on Turkey to return to a peace process amid the escalation of fighting between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in urban areas across the country’s Southeast.
During a debate in the European Parliament on the situation in the southeastern region — where state authorities have imposed round-the-clock curfews in many Kurdish towns several times — the Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D) group and other officials have urged Turkish authorities to restart the stalled peace process.
While the MEPs stressed that Turkey has a right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, they argued that curfews serve as a form of collective punishment.
“Turkey’s right to fight against terrorism is not questioned,” Kati Piri, S&D MEP and the parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, said on Wednesday.
“And the so-called ‘retaliation actions’ from the PKK last week — killing police officers and their family members — can in no way be justified. The general feeling, however, is that the curfew and operations by Turkish forces are about collective punishment rather than being aimed at restoring public order.”
She also said she is concerned about the prosecution of more than 1,000 academics who signed a petition calling for peace last week. “How can reasonable people calling for the violence to stop be labelled traitors and promoters of terrorism?” she asked.
“In all our interactions with Turkey, we continue to urge all parties to guarantee the rule of law in the country and to call for an immediate cease-fire and an urgent return of the Kurdish peace process,” Johannes Hahn, member of the European Commission in charge of European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, said in an address to members of the parliament on Wednesday.
“The high level political dialogue [between Turkish and EU officials] on Jan. 25 will be another opportunity to raise these issues,” he said of the upcoming meeting between officials from Ankara and Brussels.
“The peace force remains the best opportunity in a generation to solve a conflict that has claimed far too many lives,” he said, after stressing that the progress made in the past two years should not be thrown away.
In echoing Piti’s remarks, S&D vice president for foreign affairs, neighborhood policy and enlargement Knut Fleckenstein also called for a return to the peace process.
“We strongly urge the government to return to the path of dialogue and not to sacrifice the country’s long-term stability. Equally, we call on Kurdish political and community leaders to act with restraint and responsibility,” he said.
“And finally, we urge the [European] Commission to state clearly that we disagree with the Turkish authorities’ current policy in the Southeast of the country and that there needs to be a change,” he added.
A group of MEPs from S&D will travel to southeastern Turkey in February to observe the situation there.
Read also:
U.S. Vice President Biden arrives for two-day visit to Turkey, Today’s Zaman, Jan 21, 2016
610 PKK militants killed since December 2015, Turkish army says, Anadolou Agency, Jan 21, 2016
No more talks with PKK, vows Erdoğan, Anadolou Agency, Jan 21, 2016
